Windows Firewall Disabled via netsh advfirewall

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 netsh being used to turn off the Windows Firewall through the advfirewall set allprofiles state off command. Phobos ransomware disables the firewall to ease lateral movement and unhindered communication before encryption. Programmatic firewall disabling is a defense-evasion action uncommon outside deliberate administration.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1685 — drag to rearrange

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 Windows Defender Exclusion Enumeration via reg query (via process_creation)

Windows Firewall Disabled via netsh advfirewall

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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