splunk_escuTTP

Windows Impair Defense Change Win Defender Throttle Rate

The following analytic detects modifications to the ThrottleDetectionEventsRate registry setting in Windows Defender. It leverages data from the Endpoint.Registry datamodel to identify changes in the registry path related to Windows Defender's event logging rate. This activity is significant because altering the ThrottleDetectionEventsRate can reduce the frequency of logged detection events, potentially masking malicious activities. If confirmed malicious, this could allow an attacker to evade detection by decreasing the visibility of security events, thereby hindering incident response and forensic investigations.

MITRE ATT&CK

T1562.001

Detection Query

| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime FROM datamodel=Endpoint.Registry where Registry.registry_path= "*\\Windows Defender\\NIS\\Consumers\\IPS\\ThrottleDetectionEventsRate" by Registry.action Registry.dest Registry.process_guid Registry.process_id Registry.registry_hive Registry.registry_path Registry.registry_key_name Registry.registry_value_data Registry.registry_value_name Registry.registry_value_type Registry.status Registry.user Registry.vendor_product | `drop_dm_object_name(Registry)` | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` | `windows_impair_defense_change_win_defender_throttle_rate_filter`

Author

Teoderick Contreras, Splunk

Created

2026-04-15

Data Sources

Sysmon EventID 13

References

Tags

Windows Defense Evasion TacticsWindows Registry Abuse

Raw Content

name: Windows Impair Defense Change Win Defender Throttle Rate
id: f7da5fca-9261-43de-a4d0-130dad1e4f4d
version: 9
date: '2026-04-15'
author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk
status: production
type: TTP
data_source:
    - Sysmon EventID 13
description: The following analytic detects modifications to the ThrottleDetectionEventsRate registry setting in Windows Defender. It leverages data from the Endpoint.Registry datamodel to identify changes in the registry path related to Windows Defender's event logging rate. This activity is significant because altering the ThrottleDetectionEventsRate can reduce the frequency of logged detection events, potentially masking malicious activities. If confirmed malicious, this could allow an attacker to evade detection by decreasing the visibility of security events, thereby hindering incident response and forensic investigations.
search: '| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime FROM datamodel=Endpoint.Registry where Registry.registry_path= "*\\Windows Defender\\NIS\\Consumers\\IPS\\ThrottleDetectionEventsRate" by Registry.action Registry.dest Registry.process_guid Registry.process_id Registry.registry_hive Registry.registry_path Registry.registry_key_name Registry.registry_value_data Registry.registry_value_name Registry.registry_value_type Registry.status Registry.user Registry.vendor_product | `drop_dm_object_name(Registry)` | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` | `windows_impair_defense_change_win_defender_throttle_rate_filter`'
how_to_implement: To successfully implement this search you need to be ingesting information on process that include the name of the process responsible for the changes from your endpoints into the `Endpoint` datamodel in the `Registry` node.
known_false_positives: It is unusual to turn this feature off a Windows system since it is a default security control, although it is not rare for some policies to disable it. Although no false positives have been identified, use the provided filter macro to tune the search.
references:
    - https://x.com/malmoeb/status/1742604217989415386?s=20
    - https://github.com/undergroundwires/privacy.sexy
drilldown_searches:
    - name: View the detection results for - "$dest$"
      search: '%original_detection_search% | search  dest = "$dest$"'
      earliest_offset: $info_min_time$
      latest_offset: $info_max_time$
    - name: View risk events for the last 7 days for - "$dest$"
      search: '| from datamodel Risk.All_Risk | search normalized_risk_object IN ("$dest$") | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime values(search_name) as "Search Name" values(risk_message) as "Risk Message" values(analyticstories) as "Analytic Stories" values(annotations._all) as "Annotations" values(annotations.mitre_attack.mitre_tactic) as "ATT&CK Tactics" by normalized_risk_object | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`'
      earliest_offset: 7d
      latest_offset: "0"
rba:
    message: Windows Defender ThrottleDetectionEventsRate feature was modified on $dest$.
    risk_objects:
        - field: dest
          type: system
          score: 50
    threat_objects: []
tags:
    analytic_story:
        - Windows Defense Evasion Tactics
        - Windows Registry Abuse
    asset_type: Endpoint
    mitre_attack_id:
        - T1562.001
    product:
        - Splunk Enterprise
        - Splunk Enterprise Security
        - Splunk Cloud
    security_domain: endpoint
tests:
    - name: True Positive Test
      attack_data:
        - data: https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/splunk/attack_data/master/datasets/attack_techniques/T1562.001/disable-windows-security-defender-features/windefender-bypas-2-sysmon.log
          source: XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational
          sourcetype: XmlWinEventLog