SV-278668r1192823: Microsoft Defender AV must enable script scanning. | Microsoft Defender Antivirus STIG SCAP Benchmark

Loading benchmark…

Assessment Title

Rule Text

Microsoft Defender AV must enable script scanning.

Description

Discussion Text

Always-on protection consists of real-time protection, behavior monitoring, and heuristics to identify malware based on known suspicious and malicious activities. These activities include events, such as processes making unusual changes to existing files, modifying or creating automatic startup registry keys and startup locations (also known as autostart extensibility points, or ASEPs), and other changes to the file system or file structure.

How this relates to the STIG checklist: STIG vs SCAP benchmark.

IA Controls

NIST SP 800-53

Not mappedCCI-002624

References

DPMS Target Microsoft Defender Antivirus DISA DPMS Target Microsoft Defender Antivirus 3985

SCC Automation Reference

The reconstructed evaluation script behind this rule's OVAL check(s) — every module a compound check combines, with this rule's own concrete values and DISA's SCC tool's real per-module mechanism curated from static teardown of SCC releases.

# Windows PowerShell
# Reconstructed from oval:mil.disa.stig.windowsdefav:def:278668
# Microsoft Defender AV must enable script scanning.
# Per-module read mechanism curated from static teardown of DISA's SCC tool
# (SCAP Compliance Checker) -- see the SCC Automation Reference above.

# Verifies 'Turn on script scanning' is 'Enabled'
# registry_object (registry_test)
function test_1 {
  return (((@{String='reg_sz';ExpandString='reg_expand_sz';Binary='reg_binary';DWord='reg_dword';MultiString='reg_multi_sz';QWord='reg_qword';None='reg_none'}[(Get-Item -Path 'Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Real-Time Protection').GetValueKind('DisableScriptScanning').ToString()]) -eq 'reg_dword') -and (((Get-ItemProperty -Path 'Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Real-Time Protection' -Name 'DisableScriptScanning' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) | Select-Object -ExpandProperty 'DisableScriptScanning') -eq 0))
}

if (test_1) {
  Write-Output "PASS"
} else {
  Write-Output "FAIL"
}

Assessment Script Powered by AISyntax-verified

A standalone PowerShell script to assess this control automatically. Review before running it in your environment.

Syntax-checked as valid PowerShell. Not executed here — running it for real needs the actual ms_defender_antivirus target this check assesses.

# oval:mil.disa.stig.windowsdefav:def:278668
if (-not (Test-Path -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Real-Time Protection\DisableScriptScanning")) {exit 1} else {if ((Get-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Real-Time Protection\DisableScriptScanning").value -eq 0) {exit 0} else {exit 1}}

Remediation

Set the policy value for Computer Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Windows Components >> Microsoft Defender Antivirus >> Real-time Protection >> Turn on script scanning to "Enabled".