Users must be prevented from making changes to Exploit Protection settings in the Windows Defender Security Center on Windows 10.

From Windows 10 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Associated with: CCI-000366

SV-91721r2_rule Users must be prevented from making changes to Exploit Protection settings in the Windows Defender Security Center on Windows 10.

Vulnerability discussion

Exploit protection in Windows 10 provides a means of enabling additional mitigations against potential threats at the system and application level. If users are allowed to make changes to the configured mitigations, the additional protections may be circumvented.

Check content

This is NA prior to v1709 of Windows 10. This is applicable to unclassified systems, for other systems this is NA. If the following registry value does not exist or is not configured as specified, this is a finding: Registry Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Registry Path: \SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender Security Center\App and Browser protection\ Value Name: DisallowExploitProtectionOverride Value Type: REG_DWORD Value: 0x00000001 (1)

Fix text

Configure the policy value for Computer Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Windows Components >> Windows Defender Security Center >> App and browser protection >> "Prevent users from modifying settings" to "Enabled".

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