Sigma rule: Suspicious Application Allowed Through Exploit Guard

Rule

Title

Suspicious Application Allowed Through Exploit Guard

Status

test

Level

high

Author

Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)

Date

2022-08-05

Modified

2023-08-17

File

rules/windows/registry/registry_set/registry_set_exploit_guard_susp_allowed_apps.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects applications being added to the "allowed applications" list of exploit guard in order to bypass controlled folder settings

Log source

product

windows

category

registry_set

Detection

selection_key:
    TargetObject|contains: 'SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Windows Defender Exploit Guard\Controlled Folder Access\AllowedApplications'
selection_paths:
    TargetObject|contains:
        # Add more paths you don't allow in your org
        - '\Users\Public\'
        - '\AppData\Local\Temp\'
        - '\Desktop\'
        - '\PerfLogs\'
        - '\Windows\Temp\'
condition: all of selection_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Unlikely

Tags

• attack.defense-impairment
• attack.t1685

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1685

References

• https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2017/10/23/windows-defender-exploit-guard-reduce-the-attack-surface-against-next-generation-malware/

Read on 2026-11-03T00:58:21.399Z under licence sigma-drl-1.1@d5f4c36a from https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/windows/registry/registry_set/registry_set_exploit_guard_susp_allowed_apps.yml