Windows Defender Firewall Service Failed to Load Group Policy (Event ID 2009)
Alert on Event ID 2009 when the Windows Defender Firewall service cannot load Group Policy.
- Product
- windows
- Service
- firewall-as
- Author
- frack113 (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
- Published
- 2022-02-19
- Updated
- 2026-07-31
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 identifies cases where the Windows Defender Firewall service reports that it failed to load Group Policy (Event ID 2009). Attackers may attempt to disrupt or weaken security controls, and Group Policy load failures can indicate defensive configuration integrity problems. The detection relies on Windows firewall service event telemetry containing EventID 2009.
Reporting behind it
Changelog
v2- v2Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
- v1No changelog recorded for this version.2026-07-30
Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.
title: Windows Defender Firewall Service Failed to Load Group Policy (Event ID 2009)
id: 4d1ba347-009d-4d89-b636-55c54d6ec8b3
status: test
description: This rule identifies cases where the Windows Defender Firewall service reports that it failed to load Group Policy (Event ID 2009). Attackers may attempt to disrupt or weaken security controls, and Group Policy load failures can indicate defensive configuration integrity problems. The detection relies on Windows firewall service event telemetry containing EventID 2009.
references:
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2008-r2-and-2008/dd364427(v=ws.10)
- https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/windows/builtin/firewall_as/win_firewall_as_failed_load_gpo.yml
author: frack113, Huntrule Team
date: 2022-02-19
modified: 2023-01-17
tags:
- attack.defense-impairment
- attack.t1686.003
logsource:
product: windows
service: firewall-as
detection:
selection:
EventID: 2009
condition: selection
level: low
license: DRL-1.1
related:
- id: 7ec15688-fd24-4177-ba43-1a950537ee39
type: derived