Malicious Windows Defender Exclusion of Drive Roots via Add-MpPreference (via process_creation)

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 a PowerShell Add-MpPreference command adding whole drive roots as Windows Defender scan exclusions, an impairment step the 8220 Gang cryptomining campaign runs before dropping miner payloads. Excluding entire drives blinds antivirus across the system. Detecting broad exclusion-path additions surfaces defense evasion that precedes cryptominer deployment.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1685 — drag to rearrange

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Malicious Windows Defender Exclusion of Drive Roots via Add-MpPreference (via process_creation)

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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