Suspicious Microsoft Defender Definitions Removed via MpCmdRun

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 MpCmdRun.exe being used to remove all Defender signature definitions. Adversaries strip antivirus definitions to degrade detection coverage before executing malware, an evasion behaviour highlighted in Sekoia Defender tampering research.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1685 — drag to rearrange

Malicious Microsoft Defender Services Stopped via sc.exe

Suspicious Defender Behavior Monitoring Disable via PowerShell (via process_creation)

Suspicious Windows Defender Real-Time Monitoring Disable (via process_creation)

Malicious Microsoft Defender Real-Time Monitoring Disabled via Set-MpPreference (via process_creation)

Suspicious Windows Defender Exclusion Added via PowerShell via Process Creation (via process_creation)

Malicious TCC AppleEvents Reset via Tccutil

Suspicious ESXi Management Agent Stop via vpxa init Script (via process_creation)

Malicious ESXi Firewall Disable via esxcli (via process_creation)

Malicious ESXi Syslog Redirection to tmp via esxcli

Suspicious Microsoft Defender Definitions Removed via MpCmdRun

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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