Malicious Windows Defender Real-Time Protection Disabled via Registry

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 registry modifications that disable Windows Defender real-time and behavior monitoring. Bundled malware sets DisableRealtimeMonitoring and DisableBehaviorMonitoring to one to blind the built-in antivirus. Turning off protection precedes deployment of stealers and remote access payloads.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1685 — drag to rearrange

Malicious Vulnerable Driver Load via TfSysMon.sys BYOVD (via driver_load)

Suspicious Defendnot Antivirus Disabling Component Dropped in ProgramData (via file_event)

Malicious Removal of Defender Safe Mode Service Registration via Process Creation

Suspicious Windows Defender Weakening via MpPreference (via process_creation)

Malicious Vulnerable Driver Load by GentleKiller BYOVD EDR Killer

Malicious Whole-Drive Defender Exclusion via Add-MpPreference (via ps_script)

Suspicious Disabling of WinRM Service via sc config

Suspicious Service binPath Hijack Followed by System Reboot

Malicious Windows Defender Root Exclusion via Add-MpPreference (via process_creation)

Malicious Windows Defender Real-Time Protection Disabled via Registry

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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