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Troubleshoot exploit protection mitigations

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Applies to:

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When you create a set of exploit protection mitigations (known as a configuration), you might find that the configuration export and import process does not remove all unwanted mitigations.

You can manually remove unwanted mitigations in Windows Security, or you can use the following process to remove all mitigations and then import a baseline configuration file instead.

  1. Remove all process mitigations with this PowerShell script:

    # Check if Admin-Privileges are available
function Test-IsAdmin {
    ([Security.Principal.WindowsPrincipal] [Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent()).IsInRole([Security.Principal.WindowsBuiltInRole] "Administrator")
}

# Delete ExploitGuard ProcessMitigations for a given key in the registry. If no other settings exist under the specified key,
# the key is deleted as well
function Remove-ProcessMitigations([Object] $Key, [string] $Name) {
    Try {
        if ($Key.GetValue("MitigationOptions")) {
            Write-Host "Removing MitigationOptions for:      " $Name
            Remove-ItemProperty -Path $Key.PSPath -Name "MitigationOptions" -ErrorAction Stop;
        }
        if ($Key.GetValue("MitigationAuditOptions")) {
            Write-Host "Removing MitigationAuditOptions for: " $Name
            Remove-ItemProperty -Path $Key.PSPath -Name "MitigationAuditOptions" -ErrorAction Stop;
        }
        if ($Key.GetValue("EAFModules")) {
            Write-Host "Removing EAFModules for: " $Name
            Remove-ItemProperty -Path $Key.PSPath -Name "EAFModules" -ErrorAction Stop;
        }

        # Remove the FilterFullPath value if there is nothing else
        if (($Key.SubKeyCount -eq 0) -and ($Key.ValueCount -eq 1) -and ($Key.GetValue("FilterFullPath"))) {
            Remove-ItemProperty -Path $Key.PSPath -Name "FilterFullPath" -ErrorAction Stop;
        }

        # If the key is empty now, delete it
        if (($Key.SubKeyCount -eq 0) -and ($Key.ValueCount -eq 0)) {
            Write-Host "Removing empty Entry:                " $Name
            Remove-Item -Path $Key.PSPath -ErrorAction Stop
        }
    }
    Catch {
        Write-Host "ERROR:" $_.Exception.Message "- at ($MitigationItemName)"
    }
}

# Delete all ExploitGuard ProcessMitigations
function Remove-All-ProcessMitigations {
    if (!(Test-IsAdmin)) {
        throw "ERROR: No Administrator-Privileges detected!"; return
    }

    Get-ChildItem -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options" | ForEach-Object {
        $MitigationItem = $_;
        $MitigationItemName = $MitigationItem.PSChildName

        Try {
            Remove-ProcessMitigations $MitigationItem $MitigationItemName

            # "UseFilter" indicate full path filters may be present
            if ($MitigationItem.GetValue("UseFilter")) {
                Get-ChildItem -Path $MitigationItem.PSPath | ForEach-Object {
                    $FullPathItem = $_
                    if ($FullPathItem.GetValue("FilterFullPath")) {
                        $Name = $MitigationItemName + "-" + $FullPathItem.GetValue("FilterFullPath")
                        Write-Host "Removing FullPathEntry:              " $Name
                        Remove-ProcessMitigations $FullPathItem $Name
                    }

                    # If there are no subkeys now, we can delete the "UseFilter" value
                    if ($MitigationItem.SubKeyCount -eq 0) {
                        Remove-ItemProperty -Path $MitigationItem.PSPath -Name "UseFilter" -ErrorAction Stop
                    }
                }
            }
            if (($MitigationItem.SubKeyCount -eq 0) -and ($MitigationItem.ValueCount -eq 0)) {
                Write-Host "Removing empty Entry:                " $MitigationItemName
                Remove-Item -Path $MitigationItem.PSPath -ErrorAction Stop
            }
        }
        Catch {
            Write-Host "ERROR:" $_.Exception.Message "- at ($MitigationItemName)"
        }
    }
}

# Delete all ExploitGuard System-wide Mitigations
function Remove-All-SystemMitigations {

    if (!(Test-IsAdmin)) {
        throw "ERROR: No Administrator-Privileges detected!"; return
    }

    $Kernel = Get-Item -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\kernel"

    Try {
        if ($Kernel.GetValue("MitigationOptions"))
            { Write-Host "Removing System MitigationOptions"
                Remove-ItemProperty -Path $Kernel.PSPath -Name "MitigationOptions" -ErrorAction Stop;
            }
        if ($Kernel.GetValue("MitigationAuditOptions"))
            { Write-Host "Removing System MitigationAuditOptions"
                Remove-ItemProperty -Path $Kernel.PSPath -Name "MitigationAuditOptions" -ErrorAction Stop;
            }
    } Catch {
        Write-Host "ERROR:" $_.Exception.Message "- System"
    }
}

Remove-All-ProcessMitigations
Remove-All-SystemMitigations

  2. Create and import an XML configuration file with the following default mitigations, as described in Import, export, and deploy Exploit Protection configurations:

     <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <root>
    <SystemConfig/>
    <AppConfig Executable="ExtExport.exe">
       <ASLR OverrideForceRelocateImages="false" ForceRelocateImages="false" Enable="true"/>
    </AppConfig>
    <AppConfig Executable="ie4uinit.exe">
      <ASLR OverrideForceRelocateImages="false" ForceRelocateImages="false" Enable="true"/>
    </AppConfig>
    <AppConfig Executable="ieinstal.exe">
   <ASLR OverrideForceRelocateImages="false" ForceRelocateImages="false" Enable="true"/>
    </AppConfig>
    <AppConfig Executable="ielowutil.exe">
      <ASLR OverrideForceRelocateImages="false" ForceRelocateImages="false" Enable="true"/>
    </AppConfig>
   <AppConfig Executable="ieUnatt.exe">
      <ASLR OverrideForceRelocateImages="false" ForceRelocateImages="false" Enable="true"/>
    </AppConfig>
   <AppConfig Executable="iexplore.exe">
      <ASLR OverrideForceRelocateImages="false" ForceRelocateImages="false" Enable="true"/>
    </AppConfig>
   <AppConfig Executable="mscorsvw.exe">
       <ExtensionPoints OverrideExtensionPoint="false" DisableExtensionPoints="true"/>
    </AppConfig>
    <AppConfig Executable="msfeedssync.exe">
       <ASLR OverrideForceRelocateImages="false" ForceRelocateImages="false" Enable="true"/>
    </AppConfig>
    <AppConfig Executable="mshta.exe">
       <ASLR OverrideForceRelocateImages="false" ForceRelocateImages="false" Enable="true"/>
    </AppConfig>
    <AppConfig Executable="ngen.exe">
       <ExtensionPoints OverrideExtensionPoint="false" DisableExtensionPoints="true"/>
    </AppConfig>
    <AppConfig Executable="ngentask.exe">
       <ExtensionPoints OverrideExtensionPoint="false" DisableExtensionPoints="true"/>
    </AppConfig>
    <AppConfig Executable="PresentationHost.exe">
       <DEP Enable="true" OverrideDEP="false" EmulateAtlThunks="false"/>
       <ASLR OverrideForceRelocateImages="false" ForceRelocateImages="false" Enable="true" OverrideBottomUp="false" HighEntropy="true" BottomUp="true"/>
       <SEHOP Enable="true" OverrideSEHOP="false" TelemetryOnly="false"/>
       <Heap OverrideHeap="false" TerminateOnError="true"/>
    </AppConfig>
    <AppConfig Executable="PrintDialog.exe">
       <ExtensionPoints OverrideExtensionPoint="false" DisableExtensionPoints="true"/>
    </AppConfig>
    <AppConfig Executable="PrintIsolationHost.exe"/>
    <AppConfig Executable="runtimebroker.exe">
       <ExtensionPoints OverrideExtensionPoint="false" DisableExtensionPoints="true"/>
    </AppConfig>
        <AppConfig Executable="splwow64.exe"/>
    <AppConfig Executable="spoolsv.exe"/>
    <AppConfig Executable="svchost.exe"/>
    <AppConfig Executable="SystemSettings.exe">
       <ExtensionPoints OverrideExtensionPoint="false" DisableExtensionPoints="true"/>
    </AppConfig>
</root>

If you haven't already, it's a good idea to download and use the Windows Security Baselines to complete your Exploit protection customization.

Tip

Do you want to learn more? Engage with the Microsoft Security community in our Tech Community: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Tech Community.