Ensure 'Turn on process scanning whenever real-time protection is enabled' is set to 'Enabled'

HighLevel 1Automateddefender

Description

This policy setting configures process scanning when real-time protection is turned on. This helps to catch malware which could start when real-time protection is turned off. The recommended state for this setting is: Enabled. Rationale: When running an antivirus solution such as Microsoft Defender Antivirus, it is important to ensure that it is configured to heuristically monitor in real-time for suspicious and known malicious activity. Audit reads the Group Policy registry value and prints 'compliant', 'unset' (policy not configured, reported as FAIL) or the non-compliant value. Registry value: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Real-TimeProtection:DisableScanOnRealtimeEnable (REG_DWORD); compliant when it is 0. Remediation writes 0 locally; in a domain set it through the ADMX so Group Policy does not revert it.

How it is checked

Audit method: Windows registry

registry

$v = (Get-ItemProperty -Path 'Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Real-TimeProtection' -Name 'DisableScanOnRealtimeEnable' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue).'DisableScanOnRealtimeEnable'; if ($null -eq $v) { 'unset' } elseif (($null -ne $v -and @(0) -contains [int64]$v)) { 'compliant' } else { "non-compliant: $v" }

Expected output: compliant

How it is fixed

Fix method: Shell command

shell

$p = 'Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Real-TimeProtection'; if (-not (Test-Path -Path $p)) { New-Item -Path $p -Force | Out-Null }; New-ItemProperty -Path $p -Name 'DisableScanOnRealtimeEnable' -Value 0 -PropertyType DWord -Force | Out-Null

Properties

Operating systems: Any
Tags: defenderantiviruscis-l1
Reference: CIS Microsoft Defender Antivirus Benchmark v1.0.0 - 1.10.7 Ensure 'Turn on process scanning whenever real-time protection is enabled' is set to 'Enabled'

Check this host

Run this on a machine you are allowed to audit. The scan is read-only.

shell

tmaegis scan --target defender