Category: Security

How Office Macros Expand the Attack Surface

Regardless the size of the organization. There is always one or few macros setup in excel files that does some tasks for the users. These macros are so critical to the business, and most of the time employees' tasks are evolving around them.And most of the time, people who create the macros in the organization … Continue reading How Office Macros Expand the Attack Surface

Securing LSASS – Controls to Minimise Attack Surface

LSASS, one of the most important pieces in an OS - say Windows 11, and one of the pieces that a threat actors are very tempted to keep their hands on. LSASS - Local Security Authority Subsystem Service, the process which is responsible for handling authentication, logon and security policies on Windows. Often, organizations don't … Continue reading Securing LSASS – Controls to Minimise Attack Surface

Why Defendnot is a Wake-up Call? A Ground Level Analysis

TL;DR If you are in the Security world, I believe you have heard all about Defendnot and how lethal it can be. The TL;DR is, Defendnot is a research project (by es3n1n), which is a tool that silently disables Defender AV when a 3rd party AV is not installed in the endpoint. When it's successfully … Continue reading Why Defendnot is a Wake-up Call? A Ground Level Analysis

Inspecting Microsoft Defender Attack Surface Reduction Rules

What I will be covering in this article 👇🏽 Not a How, but more of a WhyProactive Prevention Vs. Reactive DetectionThe Ever-Expanding Attack SurfaceWhy Does Attack Surface Management Matter? - Painting the Picture With An ExampleA Good Rollout RoadmapPolicy Exceptions - Experience From the FieldPlanning the DeploymentLet's Categorize the RulesUnderstanding the ASR Rule ModesIf You … Continue reading Inspecting Microsoft Defender Attack Surface Reduction Rules

Microsoft Defender for Identity – A Deep Dive

Microsoft Defender for Identity or MDI. The main purpose of this write-up is to shed some light on the fact that why you need MDI in your environment and how it can protect your traditional on-premises AD infrastructure. It's no wonder that there are a lot of other products in the market that do similar … Continue reading Microsoft Defender for Identity – A Deep Dive

How a Synthetic Registration in Entra ID Can Protect the Devices ASAP with Defender for Endpoint?

One of the popular queries I have got by working with many customers for their Defender for Endpoint deployment projects is We need the Defender Security Policies to be assigned and working as soon as the device is onboarded to MDE.Having Onboarded to MDE, if and when Intune enrollment and Device Registration in Entra ID … Continue reading How a Synthetic Registration in Entra ID Can Protect the Devices ASAP with Defender for Endpoint?

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint – Passive Mode

Passive mode and EDR in block mode. It's fair to assume that if Defender is not the "Active" or the "Primary" AV on the computer, then that will be running in Passive mode. However, in the Defender world, it is one of the states where you can leave Defender running. However, that might not be … Continue reading Microsoft Defender for Endpoint – Passive Mode

Quick Defender SmartScreen Deep Dive with Niklas Tinner

Recently I got the opportunity to sit with Niklas Tinner, a like-minded tech guru and an End User Computing specialist to discuss Defender SmartScreen and its benefits, advanced hunting for SmartScreen incidents, policies, and best practices. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI_x_dtrSFQ And detailed blog post on the same can be found below. https://shehanperera.com/2022/12/14/defender-smartscreen-deep-dive-02/

How to Track Devices with a Faulty MDE Sensor Health State, Using a Logic App Workflow?

The MDE Sensor Health what we like to see is "Active". The sensor health we don't want is "Inactive" or "Misconfigured". But sometimes it is almost impossible to track the sensor status of all the devices every day so the devices will be all healthy. However, in order to properly communicate with Defender, the endpoint's … Continue reading How to Track Devices with a Faulty MDE Sensor Health State, Using a Logic App Workflow?

How to Enable the New Security Settings Management Feature in Defender Security Portal

In Public Preview at the time of the writing. This is a much-needed feature I believe. Also in most of the IT departments due to the tasks being segregated among different admins, most of the time it is a team game and you need 2 different admins (Intune Administrator and a Security Administrator) to collaborate … Continue reading How to Enable the New Security Settings Management Feature in Defender Security Portal

Microsoft Defender SmartScreen Deep Dive

Microsoft Defender SmartScreen is the frontline defense against all threats. Did I put that right? It truly is the frontline protector in the Windows computer and the Edge browser on any OS platform. I've been dealing with a lot of SmartScreen configuration tasks, and troubleshooting scenarios when working with customers and I wanted to write … Continue reading Microsoft Defender SmartScreen Deep Dive

New and Updated Microsoft Intune Device Control Policy Settings

New day new blog post. This is more of an updated guide to what I've written some time ago (check below) https://shehanperera.com/2022/08/06/mem-device-control-1/ What I Will Be Covering? 👇🏽 What's New?🌟 Apply layered order of evaluation for Allow and Prevent device installation policies across all device match criteria🌟 Removable Storage Access🌟 Defender Scanning (this setting can … Continue reading New and Updated Microsoft Intune Device Control Policy Settings

Configure “Enhanced Phishing Protection in Microsoft Defender SmartScreen” in Windows 11 22H2 via Endpoint Manager

Windows 11 22H2 update brought a lot of good stuff and as a tech enthusiast I really appreciate what Microsoft is doing to ensure the end user devices are protected. Enhanced Phishing Protection in Microsoft defender SmartScreen is one of them. While the features are available to the standard Windows Home user, I tested these … Continue reading Configure “Enhanced Phishing Protection in Microsoft Defender SmartScreen” in Windows 11 22H2 via Endpoint Manager

Microsoft Intune and Defender for Endpoint Relationship Simplified

I stumbled upon this so many times, tripped and fell, read things over, test things again and again, and finally thought to write about it. Without understanding the high-level architecture and how these two services talk to each other, using this in day-to-day tech life can be challenging. Especially if you are coming from a … Continue reading Microsoft Intune and Defender for Endpoint Relationship Simplified

Microsoft 365 Defender – Advanced Threat Hunting Basics

With this post, I'm focussing anyone who is keen on knowing more about advanced features of MDE and how to get into that realm of threat hunting, and what are the controls available. So you have proper licensing enabled, and you have Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on your users' devices and they are onboarded to … Continue reading Microsoft 365 Defender – Advanced Threat Hunting Basics

An Attempt to Configure Defender for Endpoint and Endpoint Manager With the Same Device Tag

Most often the device tagging requirements are simple or you do have a set of tags for the devices that are enrolled in Intune and a set of tags for the devices onboarded in Defender for Endpoint. However there can be situations where you need both services to have the same device tagging setup. This … Continue reading An Attempt to Configure Defender for Endpoint and Endpoint Manager With the Same Device Tag

Web Content Filtering with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Advanced Features

I recently realised I haven't done much writing on Microsoft Endpoint Manager (MDE) side of things for a while. Web Content Filtering via MDE is a straight forward implementation and this will work on the devices that are onboarded currently. MDE has a lot of good features that makes it a next level XDR and … Continue reading Web Content Filtering with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Advanced Features

Microsoft Defender for Identity – Install and Configure Sensors (Azure ATP Sensors)

I will cut to the chase. MDI or Microsoft Defender for Identity is a great tool for identifying Identity threats in the local AD environment. Once the sensor is setup, you can monitor for the behavior and have the ability to configure in a way so that the bad actors aren't able to compromise your … Continue reading Microsoft Defender for Identity – Install and Configure Sensors (Azure ATP Sensors)

How To Set Defender For Endpoint To Work In Parallel When Defender Is Not The Primary A/V In The Workstation/ Server

EDR in Block Mode EDR stands for Endpoint Detection and Response. MDE has the capability to work in parallel to the 3rd party A/V running in the device. While this will not provide 100% of the tasks done by an A/V which includes real-time protection, it will help to report malicious activities.Because there is a … Continue reading How To Set Defender For Endpoint To Work In Parallel When Defender Is Not The Primary A/V In The Workstation/ Server