Microsoft Windows Defender Tamperingedit
Identifies when one or more features on Microsoft Defender are disabled. Adversaries may disable or tamper with Microsoft Defender features to evade detection and conceal malicious behavior.
Rule type: eql
Rule indices:
- winlogbeat-*
- logs-endpoint.events.registry-*
- logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*
Severity: medium
Risk score: 47
Runs every: 5m
Searches indices from: now-9m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)
Maximum alerts per execution: 100
References:
- https://thedfirreport.com/2021/10/18/icedid-to-xinglocker-ransomware-in-24-hours/
- https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/32236-enable-disable-microsoft-defender-pua-protection-windows-10-a.html
- https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/104025-turn-off-core-isolation-memory-integrity-windows-10-a.html
- https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/105533-enable-disable-windows-defender-exploit-protection-settings.html
- https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/123792-turn-off-tamper-protection-microsoft-defender-antivirus.html
- https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/51514-turn-off-microsoft-defender-periodic-scanning-windows-10-a.html
- https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3569-turn-off-real-time-protection-microsoft-defender-antivirus.html
- https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/99576-how-schedule-scan-microsoft-defender-antivirus-windows-10-a.html
Tags:
- Domain: Endpoint
- OS: Windows
- Use Case: Threat Detection
- Tactic: Defense Evasion
- Resources: Investigation Guide
- Data Source: Elastic Defend
- Data Source: Sysmon
Version: 110
Rule authors:
- Austin Songer
Rule license: Elastic License v2
Investigation guideedit
Triage and analysis
Investigating Microsoft Windows Defender Tampering
Microsoft Windows Defender is an antivirus product built into Microsoft Windows, which makes it popular across multiple environments. Disabling it is a common step in threat actor playbooks.
This rule monitors the registry for modifications that disable Windows Defender features.
Possible investigation steps
- Investigate the process execution chain (parent process tree) for unknown processes. Examine their executable files for prevalence, whether they are located in expected locations, and if they are signed with valid digital signatures.
- Validate the activity is not related to planned patches, updates, network administrator activity, or legitimate software installations.
- Identify the user account that performed the action and whether it should perform this kind of action.
- Contact the account owner and confirm whether they are aware of this activity.
- Investigate other alerts associated with the user/host during the past 48 hours.
- Examine which features have been disabled, and check if this operation is done under change management and approved according to the organization’s policy.
False positive analysis
- This mechanism can be used legitimately. Analysts can dismiss the alert if the administrator is aware of the activity, the configuration is justified (for example, it is being used to deploy other security solutions or troubleshooting), and no other suspicious activity has been observed.
Related rules
- Windows Defender Disabled via Registry Modification - 2ffa1f1e-b6db-47fa-994b-1512743847eb
- Disabling Windows Defender Security Settings via PowerShell - c8cccb06-faf2-4cd5-886e-2c9636cfcb87
Response and remediation
- Initiate the incident response process based on the outcome of the triage.
- Isolate the involved hosts to prevent further post-compromise behavior.
- Investigate credential exposure on systems compromised or used by the attacker to ensure all compromised accounts are identified. Reset passwords for these accounts and other potentially compromised credentials, such as email, business systems, and web services.
- Take actions to restore the appropriate Windows Defender antivirus configurations.
- Run a full antimalware scan. This may reveal additional artifacts left in the system, persistence mechanisms, and malware components.
- Review the privileges assigned to the user to ensure that the least privilege principle is being followed.
- Determine the initial vector abused by the attacker and take action to prevent reinfection through the same vector.
- Using the incident response data, update logging and audit policies to improve the mean time to detect (MTTD) and the mean time to respond (MTTR).
Setupedit
Setup
If enabling an EQL rule on a non-elastic-agent index (such as beats) for versions <8.2,
events will not define event.ingested and default fallback for EQL rules was not added until version 8.2.
Hence for this rule to work effectively, users will need to add a custom ingest pipeline to populate
event.ingested to @timestamp.
For more details on adding a custom ingest pipeline refer - https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/fleet/current/data-streams-pipeline-tutorial.html
Rule queryedit
registry where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type in ("creation", "change") and
(registry.path : "HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows Defender\\PUAProtection" and
registry.data.strings : ("0", "0x00000000")) or
(registry.path : "HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows Defender Security Center\\App and Browser protection\\DisallowExploitProtectionOverride" and
registry.data.strings : ("0", "0x00000000")) or
(registry.path : "HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows Defender\\DisableAntiSpyware" and
registry.data.strings : ("1", "0x00000001")) or
(registry.path : "HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows Defender\\Features\\TamperProtection" and
registry.data.strings : ("0", "0x00000000")) or
(registry.path : "HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows Defender\\Real-Time Protection\\DisableRealtimeMonitoring" and
registry.data.strings : ("1", "0x00000001")) or
(registry.path : "HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows Defender\\Real-Time Protection\\DisableIntrusionPreventionSystem" and
registry.data.strings : ("1", "0x00000001")) or
(registry.path : "HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows Defender\\Real-Time Protection\\DisableScriptScanning" and
registry.data.strings : ("1", "0x00000001")) or
(registry.path : "HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows Defender\\Windows Defender Exploit Guard\\Controlled Folder Access\\EnableControlledFolderAccess" and
registry.data.strings : ("0", "0x00000000")) or
(registry.path : "HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows Defender\\Real-Time Protection\\DisableIOAVProtection" and
registry.data.strings : ("1", "0x00000001")) or
(registry.path : "HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows Defender\\Reporting\\DisableEnhancedNotifications" and
registry.data.strings : ("1", "0x00000001")) or
(registry.path : "HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows Defender\\SpyNet\\DisableBlockAtFirstSeen" and
registry.data.strings : ("1", "0x00000001")) or
(registry.path : "HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows Defender\\SpyNet\\SpynetReporting" and
registry.data.strings : ("0", "0x00000000")) or
(registry.path : "HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows Defender\\SpyNet\\SubmitSamplesConsent" and
registry.data.strings : ("0", "0x00000000")) or
(registry.path : "HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows Defender\\Real-Time Protection\\DisableBehaviorMonitoring" and
registry.data.strings : ("1", "0x00000001"))
Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM
-
Tactic:
- Name: Defense Evasion
- ID: TA0005
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0005/
-
Technique:
- Name: Impair Defenses
- ID: T1562
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1562/
-
Technique:
- Name: Modify Registry
- ID: T1112
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1112/