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Begin your ASR rules deployment with ring 1.

ASR rules testing steps

Step 1: Test ASR rules using Audit

Begin the testing phase by turning on the ASR rules with the rules set to Audit, starting with your champion users or devices in ring 1. Typically, the recommendation is that you enable all the rules (in Audit) so that you can determine which rules are triggered during the testing phase. Note that rules that are set to Audit do not generally impact functionality of the entity or entities to which the rule is applied but do generate logged events for the evaluation; there is no effect on end users.

Configure ASR Rules using MEM

You can use Microsoft Endpoint Manager (MEM) Endpoint Security to configure custom ASR rules.

  1. Open Microsoft Endpoint Manager admin center
  2. Go to Endpoint Security > Attack surface reduction.
  3. Select Create Policy.
  4. In Platform, select Windows 10 and later, and in Profile, select Attack surface reduction rules.

    Configure ASR rules profile

  5. Click Create.
  6. In the Basics tab of the Create profile pane, in Name add a name for your policy. In Description add a description for your ASR rules policy.
  7. In the Configuration settings tab, under Attack Surface Reduction Rules, set all rules to Audit mode.

    Set ASR rules to Audit mode

     Note

    There are variations in some ASR rules mode listings; Blocked and Enabled provide the same functionality.

  8. [Optional] In the Scope tags pane, you can add tag information to specific devices. You can also use role-based access control and scope tags to make sure that the right admins have the right access and visibility to the right Intune objects. Learn more: Use role-based access control (RBAC) and scope tags for distributed IT in Intune.
  9. In the Assignments pane, you can deploy or “assign” the profile to your user or device groups. Learn more: Assign device profiles in Microsoft Intune
  10. Review your settings in the Review + create pane. Click Create to apply the rules.

Activate ASR rules policy

Your new attack surface reduction policy for ASR rules is listed in Endpoint security | Attack surface reduction.

Listed ASR rule policy

Step 2: Understand the Attack surface reduction rules reporting page in the Microsoft 365 Defender portal

The ASR rules reporting page is found in Microsoft 365 Defender portal > Reports > Attack surface reduction rules. This page has three tabs:

  • Detections
  • Configuration
  • Add exclusions

Detections tab

Provides a 30-day timeline of detected audit and blocked events.

Attack surface reduction rules detections tab

The Attack Surface reduction rules pane provides an overview of detected events on a per-rule basis.

 Note

There are some variations in ASR rules reports. Microsoft is in the process of updating the behavior of the ASR rules reports to provide a consistent experience.

Attack surface reduction rules rule detections

Click View detections to open the Detections tab.

Attack surface reduction rules detections

The GroupBy and Filter pane provide the following options:

The GroupBy returns results set to the following groups:

  • No grouping
  • Detected file
  • Audit or block
  • Rule
  • Source app
  • Device
  • User
  • Publisher

Attack surface reduction rules detections GroupBy filter

Filter opens the Filter on rules page, which enables you to scope the results to only the selected ASR rules:

Attack surface reduction rules detections filter on rules

 Note

If you have a Microsoft Microsoft 365 Security E5 or A5, Windows E5 or A5 license, the following link opens the Microsoft Defender 365 Reports > Attack surface reductions > Detections tab.

Configuration tab

Lists – on a per-computer basis – the aggregate state of ASR rules: Off, Audit, Block.

Attack surface reduction rules Configuration tab

On the Configurations tab, you can check – on a per-device basis – which ASR rules are enabled, and in which mode, by selecting the device for which you want to review ASR rules.

Attack surface reduction rules enabled and mode

The Get started link opens the Microsoft Endpoint Manager admin center, where you can create or modify an endpoint protection policy for ASR:

Attack surface reduction rules in MEM

In Endpoint security | Overview, select Attack surface reduction:

Attack surface reduction in MEM

The Endpoint Security | Attack surface reduction pane opens:

Endpoint security Asr pane

 Note

If you have a Microsoft Defender 365 E5 (or Windows E5?) license, this link will open the Microsoft Defender 365 Reports > Attack surface reductions > Configurations tab.

Add exclusions

This tab provides a method to select detected entities (for example, false positives) for exclusion. When exclusions are added, the report provides a summary of the expected impact.

 Note

Microsoft Defender Antivirus AV exclusions are honored by ASR rules. See Configure and validate exclusions based on extension, name, or location.

Endpoint security Asr tool

 Note

If you have a Microsoft Defender 365 E5 (or Windows E5?) license, this link will open the Microsoft Defender 365 Reports > Attack surface reductions > Exclusions tab.

Use PowerShell as an alternative method to enable ASR rules

You can use PowerShell – as an alternative to MEM – to enable ASR rules in audit mode to view a record of apps that would have been blocked if the feature was fully enabled. You can also get an idea of how often the rules will fire during normal use.

To enable an attack surface reduction rule in audit mode, use the following PowerShell cmdlet:

PowerShell

Add-MpPreference -AttackSurfaceReductionRules_Ids <rule ID> -AttackSurfaceReductionRules_Actions AuditMode

Where <rule ID> is a GUID value of the attack surface reduction rule.

To enable all the added attack surface reduction rules in audit mode, use the following PowerShell cmdlet:

PowerShell

(Get-MpPreference).AttackSurfaceReductionRules_Ids | Foreach {Add-MpPreference -AttackSurfaceReductionRules_Ids $_ -AttackSurfaceReductionRules_Actions AuditMode}

 Tip

If you want to fully audit how attack surface reduction rules will work in your organization, you’ll need to use a management tool to deploy this setting to devices in your network(s).

You can also use Group Policy, Intune, or mobile device management (MDM) configuration service providers (CSPs) to configure and deploy the setting. Learn more in the main Attack surface reduction rules article.

Use Windows Event Viewer Review as an alternative to the attack surface reduction rules reporting page in the Microsoft 365 Defender portal

To review apps that would have been blocked, open Event Viewer and filter for Event ID 1121 in the Microsoft-Windows-Windows Defender/Operational log. The following table lists all network protection events.

USE WINDOWS EVENT VIEWER REVIEW AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE ATTACK SURFACE REDUCTION RULES REPORTING PAGE IN THE MICROSOFT 365 DEFENDER PORTAL
Event ID Description
5007 Event when settings are changed
1121 Event when an attack surface reduction rule fires in block mode
1122 Event when an attack surface reduction rule fires in audit mode

Source : Official Microsoft Brand
Editor by : BEST Antivirus KBS Team

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