Disable or Modify Tools

What the technique is

Adversaries may disable, degrade, or tamper with security tools or applications (e.g., endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools, intrusion detection systems (IDS), antivirus, logging agents, sensors, etc.) to impair or reduce visibility of defensive capabilities. This may include stopping specific services, killing processes, modifying or deleting tool configuration files and Registry keys, or preventing tools from updating. This may also include impairing defenses more broadly by disrupting preventative, detection, and response mechanisms across host, network, and cloud environments. In addition to directly targeting tools, adversaries may block or manipulate indicators and telemetry used for detection. This includes maliciously disabling or redirecting sensors such as Event Tracing for Windows (ETW), modifying event log configurations (e.g., redirecting Security logs), or interfering with logging pipelines and forwarding mechanisms (e.g., SIEM ingestion). More advanced techniques include leveraging legitimate drivers or debugging mechanisms to render tools non-functional, bypassing anti-tampering protections, and targeting specific defenses such as Sysmon or cloud monitoring agents. […]

What MITRE says you would watch

• AN1369

  Detection of adversary behavior that disables or modifies security tools, including killing AV/EDR processes, stopping services, altering Sysmon registry keys, or tampering with exclusion lists. Defenders observe process/service termination, registry modification, and abnormal absence of expected telemetry.

• AN1370

  Detects kill/systemctl/service commands against EDR, auditd, falco, osquery, rsyslog, journald, or agent processes; configuration edits disabling startup; module unload attempts; abrupt cessation of logs after privileged shell execution.

• AN1371

  Detection of adversary disabling endpoint security tools by unloading launch agents/daemons, modifying configuration profiles, or disabling Gatekeeper/XProtect/logging settings, or removing endpoint agents followed by telemetry loss.