← Back to SOC feed Coverage →

Disable AntiVirus

yara LOW Yara-Rules
community
This rule was pulled from an open-source repository and enriched with AI. Validate in a test environment before deploying to production.
View original rule at Yara-Rules →
Retrieved: 2026-04-19T09:00:00Z · Confidence: medium

Hunt Hypothesis

An adversary may disable antivirus software to prevent detection of malicious activities, thereby increasing the likelihood of successful persistence or data exfiltration. SOC teams should proactively hunt for this behavior in Azure Sentinel to identify potential compromise and mitigate lateral movement risks.

YARA Rule

rule disable_antivirus {
    meta:
        author = "x0r"
        description = "Disable AntiVirus"
	version = "0.2"
    strings:
        $p1 = "Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Policies\\Explorer\\DisallowRun" nocase
        $p2 = "Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Uninstall\\" nocase
        $p3 = "SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows Defender" nocase
        $c1 = "RegSetValue"
        $r1 = "AntiVirusDisableNotify"
        $r2 = "DontReportInfectionInformation"
        $r3 = "DisableAntiSpyware"
        $r4 = "RunInvalidSignatures"
        $r5 = "AntiVirusOverride"
        $r6 = "CheckExeSignatures"
        $f1 = "blackd.exe" nocase
        $f2 = "blackice.exe" nocase
        $f3 = "lockdown.exe" nocase
        $f4 = "lockdown2000.exe" nocase
        $f5 = "taskkill.exe" nocase
        $f6 = "tskill.exe" nocase
        $f7 = "smc.exe" nocase
        $f8 = "sniffem.exe" nocase
        $f9 = "zapro.exe" nocase
        $f10 = "zlclient.exe" nocase
        $f11 = "zonealarm.exe" nocase
    condition:
        ($c1 and $p1 and 1 of ($f*)) or ($c1 and $p2) or 1 of ($r*) or $p3
}

Deployment Notes

This YARA rule can be deployed in the following contexts:

This rule contains 21 string patterns in its detection logic.

False Positive Guidance

Original source: https://github.com/Yara-Rules/rules/blob/main/antidebug_antivm/antidebug_antivm.yar