Malicious Windows Defender Real-Time Monitoring Disabled via PowerShell
- Product
- windows
- Category
- process_creation
- Author
- HuntRule
- Published
- 2026-06-22
- Updated
- 2026-08-28
ATT&CK techniques
ExecutionRecon
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 use of Set-MpPreference to disable Windows Defender real-time monitoring. In the WithSecure Catching Lazarus research the actor turns off real-time protection before dropping and running further tooling. Attackers disable defensive agents to run payloads without antivirus detection.
Reporting behind it
- withsecure.comhttps://www.withsecure.com/de/ressourcen/w-labs/catching-lazarus-threat-intelligence-to-real-detection-logic-part-one/
- attack.mitre.orghttps://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1562/001/
- huntress.comhttps://www.huntress.com/blog/the-gentlemen-ransomware-defense-evasion-ttps
- attack.mitre.orghttps://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1562.001/
- sekoia.comhttps://www.sekoia.com/blog/engineering-detection-around-microsoft-defender
- attack.mitre.orghttps://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1059/001/
- securityintelligence.comhttps://securityintelligence.com/x-force/x-force-hive0129-targeting-financial-institutions-latam-banking-trojan
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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