Sigma rule: Microsoft Defender Tamper Protection Trigger

Rule

Title

Microsoft Defender Tamper Protection Trigger

Status

stable

Level

high

Author

Bhabesh Raj, Nasreddine Bencherchali

Date

2021-07-05

Modified

2022-12-06

File

rules/windows/builtin/windefend/win_defender_tamper_protection_trigger.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

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

Log source

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

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Administrator might try to disable defender features during testing (must be investigated)

Tags

• attack.defense-impairment
• attack.t1685

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1685

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

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/builtin/windefend/win_defender_tamper_protection_trigger.yml