Important
The exclusions described in this article don’t apply to other Defender for Endpoint on Mac capabilities, including endpoint detection and response (EDR). Files that you exclude using the methods described in this article can still trigger EDR alerts and other detections.
You can exclude certain files, folders, processes, and process-opened files from Defender for Endpoint on Mac scans.
Exclusions can be useful to avoid incorrect detections on files or software that are unique or customized to your organization. They can also be useful for mitigating performance issues caused by Defender for Endpoint on Mac.
Warning
Defining exclusions lowers the protection offered by Defender for Endpoint on Mac. You should always evaluate the risks that are associated with implementing exclusions, and you should only exclude files that you are confident are not malicious.
Supported exclusion types
The follow table shows the exclusion types supported by Defender for Endpoint on Mac.
| Exclusion | Definition | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| File extension | All files with the extension, anywhere on the machine | .test |
| File | A specific file identified by the full path | /var/log/test.log/var/log/*.log
|
| Folder | All files under the specified folder (recursively) | /var/log//var/*/ |
| Process | A specific process (specified either by the full path or file name) and all files opened by it | /bin/catcat
|
File, folder, and process exclusions support the following wildcards:
| Wildcard | Description | Example | Matches | Does not match |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| * | Matches any number of any characters including none (note that when this wildcard is used inside a path it will substitute only one folder) | /var/*/*.log |
/var/log/system.log |
/var/log/nested/system.log |
| ? | Matches any single character | file?.log |
file1.logfile2.log |
file123.log |
Note
The product attempts to resolve firmlinks when evaluating exclusions. Firmlink resolution does not work when the exclusion contains wildcards or the target file (on the Data volume) does not exist.
How to configure the list of exclusions
From the management console
For more information on how to configure exclusions from JAMF, Intune, or another management console, see Set preferences for Defender for Endpoint on Mac.
From the user interface
Open the Defender for Endpoint application and navigate to Manage settings > Add or Remove Exclusion…, as shown in the following screenshot:
Select the type of exclusion that you wish to add and follow the prompts.
Validate exclusions lists with the EICAR test file
You can validate that your exclusion lists are working by using curl to download a test file.
In the following Bash snippet, replace test.txt with a file that conforms to your exclusion rules. For example, if you have excluded the .testing extension, replace test.txt with test.testing. If you are testing a path, ensure that you run the command within that path.
curl -o test.txt https://www.eicar.org/download/eicar.com.txt
If Defender for Endpoint on Mac reports malware, then the rule is not working. If there is no report of malware, and the downloaded file exists, then the exclusion is working. You can open the file to confirm that the contents are the same as what is described on the EICAR test file website.
If you do not have Internet access, you can create your own EICAR test file. Write the EICAR string to a new text file with the following Bash command:
echo 'X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*' > test.txt
You can also copy the string into a blank text file and attempt to save it with the file name or in the folder you are attempting to exclude.
Allow threats
In addition to excluding certain content from being scanned, you can also configure the product not to detect some classes of threats (identified by the threat name). You should exercise caution when using this functionality, as it can leave your device unprotected.
To add a threat name to the allowed list, execute the following command:
mdatp threat allowed add --name [threat-name]
The threat name associated with a detection on your device can be obtained using the following command:
mdatp threat list
For example, to add EICAR-Test-File (not a virus) (the threat name associated with the EICAR detection) to the allowed list, execute the following command:
mdatp threat allowed add --name "EICAR-Test-File (not a virus)"