Mitigate threats by using Windows 10 security features (Windows 10) | Microsoft Learn

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Tamper protection helps prevent these kinds of activities. With tamper protection, malware is prevented from taking actions such as: – Disabling virus and threat protection – Disabling real-time protection – Turning off behavior monitoring – Disabling antivirus such as IOfficeAntivirus IOAV – Disabling cloud-delivered protection – Removing security intelligence updates Learn more about Tamper protection.

Network protection in Windows helps prevent users from accessing dangerous IP addresses and domains that may host phishing scams, exploits, and other malicious content on the Internet. Network protection is part of attack surface reduction and helps provide an extra layer of protection for a user.

Using reputation-based services, network protection blocks access to potentially harmful, low-reputation based domains and IP addresses.

In enterprise environments, network protection works best with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint , which provides detailed reporting into protection events as part of larger investigation scenarios.

Learn more about Network protection. Only trusted apps can access protected folders, which are specified when controlled folder access is configured. Typically, commonly used folders, such as those used for documents, pictures, downloads, are included in the list of controlled folders.

Controlled folder access helps protect valuable data from malicious apps and threats, such as ransomware. Learn more about Controlled folder access. Exploit protection, available in Windows 10, version and later, automatically applies several exploit mitigation techniques to operating system processes and apps. Exploit protection works best with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, which gives organizations detailed reporting into exploit protection events and blocks as part of typical alert investigation scenarios.

You can enable exploit protection on an individual device, and then use Group Policy to distribute the XML file to multiple devices simultaneously. When a mitigation is encountered on the device, a notification will be displayed from the Action Center. You can customize the notification with your company details and contact information. You can also enable the rules individually to customize which techniques the feature monitors.

Learn more about Exploit protection. Windows E5 customers benefit from Microsoft Defender for Endpoint , an enterprise endpoint detection and response capability that helps enterprise security teams detect, investigate, and respond to advanced threats. OneDrive files are restored to the state they were in before the attack occurred. File versions created up to 30 days in the past can be restored at any time for any reason.

Requires Microsoft account. Location permissions must be active; driving safety available only in the U. From the box to startup to browsing, Windows 11 helps you stay secure Next-generation antivirus and malware protection. Secure sign-in with Windows Hello Forget your passwords. Edge online privacy Tracking prevention helps you manage how websites track you and gives you control over your privacy settings.

Set it and forget it Windows PCs can automatically backup precious files to the cloud in OneDrive—allowing for selected files to be made recoverable in the event of a cyberattack.

Windows 10 mitigations that you can configure are listed in the following two tables. The first table covers a wide array of protections for devices and users across the enterprise and the second table drills down into specific memory protections such as Data Execution Prevention.

Memory protection options provide specific mitigations against malware that attempts to manipulate memory in order to gain control of a system. Configurable Windows 10 mitigations designed to help protect against memory manipulation require in-depth understanding of these threats and mitigations and knowledge about how the operating system and applications handle memory.

The standard process for maximizing these types of mitigations is to work in a test lab to discover whether a given setting interferes with any applications that you use so that you can deploy settings that maximize protection while still allowing apps to run correctly.

As an IT professional, you can ask application developers and software vendors to deliver applications that include an extra protection called Control Flow Guard CFG. No configuration is needed in the operating system—the protection is compiled into applications.

More information can be found in Control Flow Guard. Windows Defender SmartScreen notifies users if they click on reported phishing and malware websites, and helps protect them against unsafe downloads or make informed decisions about downloads. For Windows 10, Microsoft improved SmartScreen now called Windows Defender SmartScreen protection capability by integrating its app reputation abilities into the operating system itself, which allows Windows Defender SmartScreen to check the reputation of files downloaded from the Internet and warn users when they’re about to run a high-risk downloaded file.

The first time a user runs an app that originates from the Internet, Windows Defender SmartScreen checks the reputation of the application by using digital signatures and other factors against a service that Microsoft maintains. If the app lacks a reputation or is known to be malicious, Windows Defender SmartScreen warns the user or blocks execution entirely, depending on how the administrator has configured Microsoft Intune or Group Policy settings.

For more information, see Microsoft Defender SmartScreen overview. Microsoft Defender Antivirus in Windows 10 uses a multi-pronged approach to improve anti-malware:. Cloud-delivered protection helps detect and block new malware within seconds, even if the malware has never been seen before. The service, available as of Windows 10, version , uses distributed resources and machine learning to deliver protection to endpoints at a rate that is far faster than traditional signature updates.

Rich local context improves how malware is identified. Windows 10 informs Microsoft Defender Antivirus not only about content like files and processes but also where the content came from, where it has been stored, and more. The information about source and history enables Microsoft Defender Antivirus to apply different levels of scrutiny to different content.

Extensive global sensors help keep Microsoft Defender Antivirus current and aware of even the newest malware. This up-to-date status is accomplished in two ways: by collecting the rich local context data from end points and by centrally analyzing that data.

Tamper proofing helps guard Microsoft Defender Antivirus itself against malware attacks. For example, Microsoft Defender Antivirus uses Protected Processes, which prevents untrusted processes from attempting to tamper with Microsoft Defender Antivirus components, its registry keys, and so on.

Protected Processes is described later in this topic. Enterprise-level features give IT pros the tools and configuration options necessary to make Microsoft Defender Antivirus an enterprise-class anti-malware solution.

For information about Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, a service that helps enterprises to detect, investigate, and respond to advanced and targeted attacks on their networks, see Microsoft Defender for Endpoint resources and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint documentation. Malware depends on its ability to insert a malicious payload into memory with the hope that it will be executed later.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could prevent malware from running if it wrote to an area that has been allocated solely for the storage of information? Data Execution Prevention DEP does exactly that, by substantially reducing the range of memory that malicious code can use for its benefit. DEP uses the No eXecute bit on modern CPUs to mark blocks of memory as read-only so that those blocks can’t be used to execute malicious code that may be inserted through a vulnerability exploit.

Click More Details if necessary , and then click the Details tab. Click Advanced system settings , and then click the Advanced tab. Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select. If you choose this option, use the Add and Remove buttons to create the list of exceptions for which DEP won’t be turned on. A few applications have compatibility problems with DEP, so be sure to test for your environment. To use the Group Policy setting, see Override Process Mitigation Options to help enforce app-related security policies.

Because this protection mechanism is provided at run-time, it helps to protect applications regardless of whether they’ve been compiled with the latest improvements. One of the most common techniques used to gain access to a system is to find a vulnerability in a privileged process that is already running, guess or find a location in memory where important system code and data have been placed, and then overwrite that information with a malicious payload. Any malware that could write directly to the system memory could overwrite it in well-known and predictable locations.

Address Space Layout Randomization ASLR makes that type of attack much more difficult because it randomizes how and where important data is stored in memory. With ASLR, it’s more difficult for malware to find the specific location it needs to attack.

Figure 3 illustrates how ASLR works by showing how the locations of different critical Windows components can change in memory between restarts.

Windows 10 applies ASLR holistically across the system and increases the level of entropy many times compared with previous versions of Windows to combat sophisticated attacks such as heap spraying. When used on systems that have TPMs, ASLR memory randomization will be increasingly unique across devices, which makes it even more difficult for a successful exploit that works on one system to work reliably on another.

Windows 10 provides many threat mitigations to protect against exploits that are built into the operating system and need no configuration within the operating system. The subsequent table describes some of these mitigations.

Control Flow Guard CFG is a mitigation that doesn’t need configuration within the operating system, but does require an application developer to configure the mitigation into the application when it’s compiled. CFG is built into Microsoft Edge, IE11, and other areas in Windows 10, and can be built into many other applications when they’re compiled.

This requirement reduces the likelihood of man-in-the-middle attacks. If SMB signing and mutual authentication are unavailable, a computer running Windows 10 or Windows Server won’t process domain-based Group Policy and scripts. The registry values for these settings aren’t present by default, but the hardening rules still apply until overridden by Group Policy or other registry values. Most security controls are designed to prevent the initial infection point.

However, despite all the best preventative controls, malware might eventually find a way to infect the system. So, some protections are built to place limits on malware that gets on the device. Protected Processes creates limits of this type. With Protected Processes, Windows 10 prevents untrusted processes from interacting or tampering with those processes that have been specially signed. Protected Processes defines levels of trust for processes.

Less trusted processes are prevented from interacting with and therefore attacking more trusted processes. Windows 10 uses Protected Processes more broadly across the operating system, and, as in Windows 8.

This ease in use helps make the system and anti-malware solutions less susceptible to tampering by malware that does manage to get on the system. Point to the choices to see the full names. In the Actions pane on the right, scroll down and then select Properties.

In the window that opens, select the Triggers tab, and then select New. Sometimes you may need to briefly stop running real-time protection. While real-time protection is off, files you open or download won’t be scanned for threats.

However, real-time protection will soon turn on automatically again to protect your device. Switch the Real-time protection setting to Off and choose Yes to verify. How malware can infect your PC. Microsoft security help and learning. Security Windows 10 Windows 11 More Windows 10 or 11 in S mode Some features will be a little different if you’re running Windows 10 or 11 in S mode.

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Windows operating system security | Microsoft Learn

 
Windows 10 and 11 include Windows Security, which provides the latest antivirus protection. Your device will be actively protected from the moment you start. The Windows Security app brings together common Windows security features into one place.

 

Stay protected with Windows Security – Microsoft Support

 
Windows 10 and 11 include Windows Security, which provides the latest antivirus protection. Your device will be actively protected from the moment you start. The Windows Security app brings together common Windows security features into one place.

 
 

The Windows Security app | Microsoft Learn.

 
 
Windows 10 and 11 include Windows Security, which provides the latest antivirus protection. Your device will be actively protected from the moment you start. The Windows Security app brings together common Windows security features into one place.