Microsoft Defender Tamper Protection: Preventing Any Antivirus Deactivation

Disabling antivirus is one of the first actions performed by malware and ransomware during a compromise.
In a modern Windows environment, Tamper Protection plays a key role by preventing any unauthorized changes to Microsoft Defender settings, even by a local administrator.

This article is intended for CIOs, CISOs, and IT teams, detailing the functionality, activation, monitoring, and best practices around Tamper Protection.

What is Tamper Protection in Microsoft Defender?

Tamper Protection is a security feature built into Microsoft Defender designed to block any attempts to modify critical protection settings.

Once enabled, it specifically prevents:

Disabling real-time protection

Disabling behavioral monitoring

Disabling cloud protection

Disabling automatic sample submission

Modifying or deleting antivirus updates

Tamper Protection blocks these actions even if executed via PowerShell, Group Policy, or with a local administrator account.

👉 This protection is essential against modern threats that systematically try to neutralize the antivirus before launching an attack.

Why Tamper Protection is Critical for Organizations

From a security perspective:

It prevents living-off-the-land attacks

It reduces the impact of administrator account compromises

It stops ransomware from disabling Defender before encryption

From an IT governance perspective:

It ensures the integrity of security configuration

It prevents uncontrolled local workarounds

It strengthens the Zero Trust posture on endpoints

How to Enable Tamper Protection via Microsoft Defender Security Center

⚠️ Tamper Protection can only be enabled through the Microsoft Defender Security Center portal.
Any local activation attempts are blocked.

Enabling at the Organization Level

Navigate to Settings > Endpoints > Advanced features

Locate Tamper Protection

Enable the feature

Save the configuration

✅ Once enabled, Tamper Protection automatically applies to all eligible devices and can no longer be disabled locally.

Checking Tamper Protection Status via PowerShell

Although activation is centralized, you can check the local status.

(Get-MpPreference).DisableTamperProtection

Interpretation

0 → Tamper Protection enabled

1 → Tamper Protection disabled

⚠️ It is impossible to change this state via PowerShell when Tamper Protection is managed by the Microsoft Defender Security Center.

Temporarily Disabling Tamper Protection: Troubleshooting Mode

In specific scenarios (advanced troubleshooting, deployment of sensitive software, security investigations), temporarily disabling Tamper Protection may be necessary.

This operation can only be performed via Troubleshooting Mode in Microsoft Defender Security Center.

Procedure to Enable Troubleshooting Mode

Go to Devices

Select the target device

Click Turn on troubleshooting mode

Maximum duration: 4 hours

⏱️ After this period, Tamper Protection is automatically re-enabled.

⚠️ This mode should be used exceptionally and under supervision, as it temporarily reduces the endpoint’s protection level.

Monitoring and Detecting Deactivation Attempts

Windows Logging

Attempts blocked by Tamper Protection are logged in the Windows Event Viewer.

Event ID: 5007

Path:

Applications and Services Logs > Microsoft > Windows > Windows Defender > Operational

This event indicates a blocked attempt to modify Microsoft Defender settings.

Monitoring via Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and Microsoft Sentinel

In environments using Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (MDE), these events are centralized in the Defender console.

They can then be leveraged in Microsoft Sentinel to:

Detect targeted compromise attempts

Correlate with high-privilege events

Enrich SOC detection rules

SOC / CISO Best Practices

Enable alerts on tampering events

Monitor repeated attempts on the same endpoint

Correlate with privilege escalation attempts

Conclusion

Tamper Protection is an essential component of Windows endpoint security.
It prevents any attempt to neutralize Microsoft Defender, whether intentional or malicious.

For CIOs, CISOs, and security teams, enabling it ensures the integrity of antivirus configuration and strengthens defense posture against advanced threats.

Key Takeaways

Prevents any unauthorized modification of Microsoft Defender

Blocks malware or ransomware attempts to disable protection

Cannot be bypassed locally

Managed exclusively via Microsoft Defender Security Center

Temporary disabling possible, strictly controlled (max 4 hours)

Want to deepen your knowledge of Microsoft Defender, Intune, or Microsoft Sentinel security?
Check out my other articles or contact me to discuss your security challenges.

Tamper Protection: Protect Microsoft Defender from being disabled