Malicious Microsoft Defender Tampering via Registry Values

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 modification of Microsoft Defender protection registry values such as TamperProtection DisableBehaviorMonitoring and DisableOnAccessProtection which infostealers set to blind endpoint defenses before harvesting credentials. Turning off these real time protections is a strong defense evasion indicator that precedes credential theft.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1685 — drag to rearrange

Malicious Windows Defender DisableAntiSpyware Registry Modification

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Malicious Reboot to Safe Mode via bcdedit SafeBoot Configuration

Suspicious rundll32 Execution Without Command Line Arguments (via process_creation)

Malicious EDRKillShifter Defense Evasion Tool Execution Linked to RansomHub

Suspicious RDP Enablement via netsh Firewall Rule

Suspicious Kernel Driver Written to AppData Temp Linked to RansomHub EDR Killers

Malicious Microsoft Defender Tampering via Registry Values

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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