Microsoft Defender Tamper Protection Trigger

Status: stable
Severity: high
Log source: product windows, service windefend
Author: Bhabesh Raj, Nasreddine Bencherchali
Source: github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects blocked attempts to change any of Defender's settings such as "Real Time Monitoring" and "Behavior Monitoring"

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Defense Impairment	`T1685` Disable or Modify Tools

Event coverage

Provider	Event
Windows-Defender	Event ID 5013

Rule body yaml

title: Microsoft Defender Tamper Protection Trigger
id: 49e5bc24-8b86-49f1-b743-535f332c2856
status: stable
description: Detects blocked attempts to change any of Defender's settings such as "Real Time Monitoring" and "Behavior Monitoring"
references:
    - https://bhabeshraj.com/post/tampering-with-microsoft-defenders-tamper-protection
    - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/defender-endpoint/troubleshoot-microsoft-defender-antivirus?view=o365-worldwide
author: Bhabesh Raj, Nasreddine Bencherchali
date: 2021-07-05
modified: 2022-12-06
tags:
    - attack.defense-impairment
    - attack.t1685
logsource:
    product: windows
    service: windefend
detection:
    selection:
        EventID: 5013 # Tamper protection blocked a change to Microsoft Defender Antivirus. If Tamper protection is enabled then, any attempt to change any of Defender's settings is blocked. Event ID 5013 is generated and states which setting change was blocked.
        Value|endswith:
            - '\Windows Defender\DisableAntiSpyware'
            - '\Windows Defender\DisableAntiVirus'
            - '\Windows Defender\Scan\DisableArchiveScanning'
            - '\Windows Defender\Scan\DisableScanningNetworkFiles'
            - '\Real-Time Protection\DisableRealtimeMonitoring'
            - '\Real-Time Protection\DisableBehaviorMonitoring'
            - '\Real-Time Protection\DisableIOAVProtection'
            - '\Real-Time Protection\DisableScriptScanning'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Administrator might try to disable defender features during testing (must be investigated)
level: high

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

selection

Stage 1: `selection`

selection:
    EventID: 5013
    Value|endswith:
        - '\Windows Defender\DisableAntiSpyware'
        - '\Windows Defender\DisableAntiVirus'
        - '\Windows Defender\Scan\DisableArchiveScanning'
        - '\Windows Defender\Scan\DisableScanningNetworkFiles'
        - '\Real-Time Protection\DisableRealtimeMonitoring'
        - '\Real-Time Protection\DisableBehaviorMonitoring'
        - '\Real-Time Protection\DisableIOAVProtection'
        - '\Real-Time Protection\DisableScriptScanning'

Indicators

Each row is a field, operator, and value that the rule matches. The corpus column counts how many other rules in the catalog look for the same combination: high numbers point to widely-used, community-vetted indicators. Blank or 1 shows that the indicator is specific to this rule.

Field	Kind	Values
`Value`	ends_with	`\Real-Time Protection\DisableBehaviorMonitoring` `\Real-Time Protection\DisableIOAVProtection` `\Real-Time Protection\DisableRealtimeMonitoring` `\Real-Time Protection\DisableScriptScanning` `\Windows Defender\DisableAntiSpyware` `\Windows Defender\DisableAntiVirus` `\Windows Defender\Scan\DisableArchiveScanning` `\Windows Defender\Scan\DisableScanningNetworkFiles`

`j` / `k`	Scroll down / up
`d` / `u`	Half-page down / up
`gg` / `G`	Top / bottom
`h` / `l`	History back / forward
`f`	Follow link (`Shift` = new tab)
`/`	Focus search
`?`	Toggle this help
`↑` / `↓`	Navigate search results
`Enter`	Open highlighted result
`Esc`	Close results / dialog

`type:`	`events` / `rules` / `providers`
`vendor:`	`sigma` / `elastic` / `splunk` / `kusto` / `chronicle` (vendor name alone also works: `sigma:`, `kql:`, `secops:`…)
`tactic:`	TA-id, slug, or name: `credential_access`, `TA0006`
`technique:`	technique or sub-technique ID: `T1003`, `T1003.001` (alias `tech:`)
`severity:`	`critical` / `high` / `medium` / `low` / `informational` (alias `sev:`)
`risk_score`	Numeric comparison on the Elastic risk score (0 to 100): `risk_score>50`, `risk_score<=20`, `risk_score=99` (alias `risk`; Elastic rules only)
`stages:`	Rules with exactly N pipeline stages
`correlation:`	`single_event` / `sequence` / `alternatives` / `alternatives_cross_log` / `all_required` / `correlated`
`with:`	Co-occurrence event-id; stacks (`with:4624 with:4769`) to require all, while a comma list in one occurrence (`with:4624,4769`) is an either-or group. Implies multi-event
`like:`	Structural neighbors of a rule slug (equivalents + subsumption stricter / broader): `like:comsvcs_lsass_memory_dump-splunk-sysmon`
`groupby:`	Entity-grouping substring match against `group_by_keys`: `groupby:user`, `groupby:host`
`uses:`	Rules whose predicate tree touches the field (any kind, any value): `uses:CommandLine`
`excludes:`	Rules with top-level `not()` clauses on the field (FP whitelists): `excludes:ParentImage`
`field:` / `value:`	Predicate search; narrows rule cards to those with a matching leaf and drives the indicator tier. Unquoted = substring, wildcards allowed (`value:mimikatz`)
`indicator:`	Shorthand for `field:F value:V`: `indicator:Image=*\powershell.exe`
`kind:`	Filter by predicate kind. Narrows rule cards to those carrying a matching predicate leaf (`vendor:elastic kind:cidr_match`) and drives the indicator tier: `contains` / `starts_with` / `ends_with` / `regex` / `cidr` / `eq` / `in` … (operator aliases `op:`/`match:`)
`has:` / `no:`	`sample`, `field`, `notes`, `refs`, `trace`, `thirdparty`, `rule`, `pattern`, `timewindow`, `threshold`, `newterms`, `sigma`/`elastic`/`splunk`/`kusto`/`chronicle`
`-op:val`	Exclude matches; works on most operators but not `type:`/`like:`/`has:`/`no:` (use `no:<flag>` to exclude a rule flag): `tactic:execution -vendor:splunk`. Standalone `-kind:`/`-field:`/`-value:` drop every rule carrying a matching predicate leaf (`type:rules -kind:is_null`)
`field:"…"` / `value:"…"`	Quoted value = anchored exact match (also allows spaces): `value:"net user"`
`a,b`	Comma = OR inside one operator (`vendor:sigma,elastic`, `severity:high,critical`); repeating a facet merges the same way. `field:`/`value:` never split (literal commas)
`vendors:` / `stage:`	Singular and plural spellings fold to the canonical operator and value: `tactics:` = `tactic:`, `type:event` = `type:events`, `correlation:sequences` = `correlation:sequence`, `has:thresholds` = `has:threshold`
`"quoted phrase"`	Exact-match a multi-word phrase (free text)

Microsoft Defender Tamper Protection Trigger

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Event coverage

Rule body yaml

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

Stage 1: `selection`

Indicators

Keyboard shortcuts

Search operators

Microsoft Defender Tamper Protection Trigger

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Event coverage

Rule body yaml

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

Stage 1: selection

Indicators

Stage 0: `condition`

Stage 1: `selection`