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AnuragSrivastava
Dec 06, 2020Iron Contributor
ASR | Legit URL getting blocked
Hi,
A legit exchange url is getting blocked by defender and showing the action type as ExploitGuardNetworkProtectionBlocked. The event info says that the URL is blocked as Custom Policy by ASR.
Though the error is encountered only on few of the machines in my environment and not all of them. As of now, I have allowed that particular URL via Indicators in MDATP Security Center.
Request is someone can help me understand the reason on why it was getting blocked and if I need to revisit any ASR policies on Intune.
Appreciate any help here.
Thanks.
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- sewtomCopper Contributor
AnuragSrivastava We have had various legit domains (e.g. zoom.us which is a sanctioned meeting tool) blocked at random for different users at different times.
This is even when domains are explicitly allowed in MDATP Security Center.
MS are continuing to troubleshoot, but it is seeming like an issue with SmartScreen URL lists rather than Defender/MCAS.
The inconsistency is not very assuring however.
- sewtomCopper ContributorAh and we also had Outlook getting blocked at one point. Turned out MS had added officeclient.microsoft.com to the listed URLs of OneDrive (consumer) in MCAS, which are automatically passing to Defender to block... They have removed it now, but seemingly it is still an immature product.
- AnuragSrivastavaIron Contributor
sewtom So did you open ticket with Microsoft to fix the same? It would be good to know and understand what actually is the reason behind the blocking of these legit URLs and that too for just few users.
- ehloworldioCopper Contributor
AnuragSrivastava based on what I understand
Network protection expands the scope of Microsoft Defender SmartScreen to block all outbound HTTP(s) traffic that attempts to connect to low-reputation sources (based on the domain or hostname).
- AnuragSrivastavaIron Contributor
ehloworldio The URL was actually accessible before, it was just yesterday only when few machines were not able to access the URL while most of the machines were able to during the same time window.
- SteBeSecIron Contributor
AnuragSrivastava You can whitelist specific IPs and URLS via the Windows Defender Security Center (Defender ATP Portal): https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/microsoft-defender-atp/indicator-ip-domain
This should unblock these, even if they are blacklisted at Microsoft.
Why the IPs/URLs are now blacklisted only Microsoft can tell. Why this only happens on some machines is strange - I think it's best to open a support case about this behavior.
Best regards
Stefan