Malicious Microsoft Defender Tampering via PowerShell Preference Cmdlets

ATT&CK techniques

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects the use of Add-MpPreference or Set-MpPreference to add scan exclusions or disable real time protection which the MUT-8694 npm and PyPI campaign runs to blind Microsoft Defender before deploying its payloads on Windows developer systems.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1685 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious Windows Defender Exclusion via Add-MpPreference (via process_creation)

Malicious Windows Defender Service Tampering via PowerShell (via process_creation)

Windows Defender Disabled via DisableAntiSpyware Registry Key

Suspicious Vulnerable Intel Ethernet Driver Load for BYOVD via SCATTERED SPIDER (via driver_load)

Malicious Defender Disable And Executable Exclusion Via Registry

Malicious UAC Disable via EnableLUA Registry Modification (via registry_set)

Malicious AMSI and ETW Patching via PowerShell Script

Malicious PowMix AMSI Bypass via amsiInitFailed

Suspicious ThrottleStop Driver Abuse for Defense Evasion in Ransomware Attacks

Malicious Microsoft Defender Tampering via PowerShell Preference Cmdlets

Pivot detection · T1685 · 9 related

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.

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