CVE-2026-33825

CVE-2026-33825 - Microsoft Defender Insufficient Access Control Exploitation

Detects exploitation attempts targeting CVE-2026-33825, an insufficient granularity of access control vulnerability (CWE-1220) in Microsoft Defender. This KEV-listed vulnerability allows attackers to bypass Defender access controls, potentially disabling protections, modifying exclusions, or tampering with security configurations without appropriate privilege levels.

Vulnerability Intelligence

KEV — Known Exploited

Affected Software

Vendor
Microsoft
Product
Defender

Weakness (CWE)

Timeline

Disclosed
April 22, 2026

CVSS

Unscored
Write-up coming soon

What is CVE-2026-33825 CVE-2026-33825 - Microsoft Defender Insufficient Access Control Exploitation?

CVE-2026-33825 - Microsoft Defender Insufficient Access Control Exploitation (CVE-2026-33825) maps to the Defense Evasion and Privilege Escalation and Persistence tactics — the adversary is trying to avoid being detected in MITRE ATT&CK.

This page provides production-ready detection logic for CVE-2026-33825 - Microsoft Defender Insufficient Access Control Exploitation, covering the data sources and telemetry it touches: Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Security Events, DeviceRegistryEvents, DeviceProcessEvents. The queries below are rated critical severity at high confidence, and ship for 7 SIEM platforms — KQL, SPL, Elastic, QRadar, Sumo, YARA-L, LogScale.

MITRE ATT&CK

Tactic
Defense Evasion Privilege Escalation Persistence
Microsoft Sentinel / Defender
kusto
let DefenderTamperEvents = SecurityEvent
| where TimeGenerated > ago(24h)
| where EventID in (4657, 4670, 4907)
| where ObjectName has_any ("Windows Defender", "MsMpEng", "WinDefend", "SecurityHealthService")
| where AccessMask in ("0x2", "0x4", "0x20", "0x40");
let DefenderConfigChanges = DeviceRegistryEvents
| where TimeGenerated > ago(24h)
| where RegistryKey has_any (
    "HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows Defender",
    "HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows Defender"
  )
| where ActionType in ("RegistryValueSet", "RegistryValueDeleted", "RegistryKeyCreated")
| where InitiatingProcessAccountName !in ("SYSTEM", "TrustedInstaller")
| where InitiatingProcessFileName !in~ ("MsMpEng.exe", "NisSrv.exe", "SecurityHealthService.exe", "MpCmdRun.exe");
let DefenderServiceChanges = DeviceProcessEvents
| where TimeGenerated > ago(24h)
| where (FileName =~ "sc.exe" and ProcessCommandLine has_any ("WinDefend", "MsMpEng", "SecurityHealthService") and ProcessCommandLine has_any ("stop", "config", "delete", "disable"))
   or (FileName =~ "powershell.exe" and ProcessCommandLine has_any ("Set-MpPreference", "Add-MpPreference", "Remove-MpPreference", "Disable-WindowsOptionalFeature") and ProcessCommandLine has_any ("-DisableRealtimeMonitoring", "ExclusionPath", "ExclusionProcess", "-DisableIOAVProtection", "-DisableBehaviorMonitoring"))
   or (FileName =~ "reg.exe" and ProcessCommandLine has "Windows Defender" and ProcessCommandLine has_any ("add", "delete"));
union DefenderTamperEvents, DefenderConfigChanges, DefenderServiceChanges
| extend AccountName = coalesce(InitiatingProcessAccountName, SubjectUserName, ""), HostName = coalesce(DeviceName, Computer, "")
| summarize EventCount=count(), FirstSeen=min(TimeGenerated), LastSeen=max(TimeGenerated), Commands=make_set(coalesce(ProcessCommandLine, ObjectName, RegistryKey), 20) by AccountName, HostName, bin(TimeGenerated, 5m)
| where EventCount >= 1
| extend AlertTitle = "CVE-2026-33825 - Suspected Defender Access Control Bypass"
| project LastSeen, FirstSeen, AlertTitle, AccountName, HostName, EventCount, Commands

Detects registry modifications, service configuration changes, and PowerShell commands consistent with exploitation of CVE-2026-33825 — bypassing Defender access controls to disable protections or add exclusions without appropriate privileges.

critical severity high confidence

Data Sources

Microsoft Sentinel Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Security Events DeviceRegistryEvents DeviceProcessEvents

Required Tables

SecurityEvent DeviceRegistryEvents DeviceProcessEvents

False Positives

  • Legitimate IT administrators using approved tooling to manage Defender policy via Group Policy or MDM
  • Authorized security operations teams running Defender health checks or remediation scripts
  • Endpoint management platforms (SCCM, Intune, Tanium) modifying Defender configuration as part of policy enforcement
  • Antivirus migration tools that temporarily disable Defender during third-party AV installation

Sigma rule & cross-platform mapping

The detection logic for CVE-2026-33825 - Microsoft Defender Insufficient Access Control Exploitation (CVE-2026-33825) above is provided in a vendor-neutral form so you can deploy it on any SIEM. The same logic is shipped here as native KQL (Microsoft Sentinel / Defender), SPL (Splunk), Elastic (Elastic Security (EQL)), QRadar (IBM QRadar (AQL)), Sumo (Sumo Logic CSE), YARA-L (Google Chronicle / SecOps), LogScale (CrowdStrike LogScale (CQL)) queries. In Sigma terms, this detection targets the following logsource:

logsource:
  category: process_creation
  product: windows

Browse the community-maintained Sigma rules for this technique:


Testing Methodology

Validate this detection against 4 adversary techniques from Atomic Red Team. Each test below lists the behaviour to exercise and the telemetry you should expect to see. Executable commands and cleanup steps are available with Pro.

  1. Test 1Disable Defender Real-Time Monitoring via PowerShell (CVE-2026-33825 Simulation)

    Expected signal: Sysmon EventID 1 (process creation) for powershell.exe with CommandLine containing Set-MpPreference and DisableRealtimeMonitoring; Windows Defender Operational EventID 5001 (real-time protection disabled); DeviceProcessEvents in MDE showing the PowerShell invocation

  2. Test 2Add Defender Exclusion Path via PowerShell

    Expected signal: Sysmon EventID 1 for powershell.exe with Add-MpPreference and ExclusionPath in CommandLine; Defender Operational EventID 5007 (configuration changed) with new exclusion path; registry modification to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Exclusions\Paths

  3. Test 3Stop WinDefend Service via sc.exe

    Expected signal: Sysmon EventID 1 (process creation) for sc.exe with CommandLine 'sc stop WinDefend'; Windows System EventID 7036 (WinDefend service stopped); Security EventID 4689 (process exit) for MsMpEng.exe if service fully stops; Defender Operational EventID 5001

  4. Test 4Modify Defender Registry Key to Disable Antispyware

    Expected signal: Sysmon EventID 13 (registry value set) with TargetObject HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender\DisableAntiSpyware and Details=DWORD (0x00000001); Security EventID 4657 for registry write to Defender policy key; Defender Operational EventID 5007

Unlock Pro Content

Get the full detection package for CVE-2026-33825 including response playbook, investigation guide, and atomic red team tests.

Response PlaybookInvestigation GuideHunting QueriesAtomic Red Team TestsTuning Guidance

Related Detections