Forum Discussion
Defender AV - Active/Passive Mode - Advanced Hunting
I noticed the server that shows unknown is running Windows Server 2012 R2
The query looks for Microsoft Defender AV data, which is not integrated in 2012 R2,
so I am going to assume this query is not able to get the info in question on Windows 2012 R2 machines since Defender does not exist.
(The link on reddit also does not mention any other platform than Windows 10 and Server 2019)
I just ran this script in a production environment and there are around 500 Windows 10 devices with AVMode "Unknown" which I assume means that Defender AV is completely disabled.
And this is a screenshot of when I run the script in my demo environment (with the "new" MDE agent installed on it ... https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-defender-for-endpoint/defending-windows-server-2012-r2-and-2016/ba-p/2783292). Defender AV AVMode shows up as "Active" on Windows Server 2012 R2.
Judging by the new screenshots, I agree that it looks like the unknown status means that AV is completely disabled (service not running or is not installed).
- AVmode will also show Unknown if SCEP is installed, like I have on a few VERY old machines.