Security News > 2022 > February > Microsoft Defender will soon block Windows password theft

Microsoft is enabling a Microsoft Defender 'Attack Surface Reduction' security rule by default to block hackers' attempts to steal Windows credentials from the LSASS process.

While Microsoft Defender block programs like Mimikatz, a LSASS memory dump can still be transferred to a remote computer to dump credentials without fear of being blocked.

As a way to mitigate Windows credential theft without causing the conflicts introduced by Credential Guard, Microsoft will soon be enabling a Microsoft Defender Attack Surface Reduction rule by default.

The rule, ' Block credential stealing from the Windows local security authority subsystem,' prevents processes from opening the LSASS process and dumping its memory, even if it has administrative privileges.

BleepingComputer's tests show that the LSASS ASR rule also works on Windows 10 and Windows 11 Pro clients.

Security researchers have discovered built-in Microsoft Defender exclusion paths allowing threat actors to run their tools from those filenames/directories to bypass the ASR rules and continue to dump the LSASS process.

News URL

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-defender-will-soon-block-windows-password-theft/