Malicious Windows Defender Service Disable via Registry

ATT&CK techniques

Persistence → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
- T1112Modify Registry
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
- T1112Modify Registry
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects the WinDefend service Start value being set to 4 (disabled) in the registry, preventing Microsoft Defender from launching at boot. This defense-evasion step appears in recurring ransomware playbooks that neutralize endpoint protection before encryption. Disabling the AV service removes real-time protection across reboots.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1112 — drag to rearrange

Malicious Microsoft Defender Tamper via Registry Modification

Malicious Defender Real-Time Monitoring Disable via Registry

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Suspicious RDP Enablement via fDenyTSConnections Registry Modification

LanmanServer MaxMpxCt Registry Modification for Lateral Movement Preparation

Malicious WDigest UseLogonCredential Enablement for Cleartext Credentials

Suspicious WMI Event Consumer Creation for MbRemoval Persistence via ps_script

Malicious Defender Exclusion Addition via Add-MpPreference

Malicious Windows Defender Service Disable via Registry

Pivot detection · T1112 · 9 related

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

Full detection rule

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