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Balancing security and flexibility when implementing Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC)
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Wednesday, Oct 26, 2022, 08:30 AM PDTEvent details
With the growing sophistication in info sec compromises, organizations are sharply increasing adoption of application control. Windows Defender Application Control has had significant changes over th...
Heather_Poulsen
Updated Dec 27, 2024
bdelamotte_83
Oct 31, 2022Copper Contributor
I can't seem to post in the comments, so will reply here. Re: the use of Managed Installer and the Intelligent Security Graph, contrary to the video and the WDAC documentation, MI and ISG only work on Enterprise, not Pro. Is this a bug, or documentation oversight?
Jeffrey_Sutherland
Microsoft
Oct 31, 2022ISG has always worked on Pro. Managed installer has historically been restricted to Pro (due to AppLocker restriction), but that Edition restriction is being removed with servicing updates coming out later this month as a preview update and with the December patch Tuesday updates.
- bdelamotte_83Dec 13, 2022Copper ContributorHi Jeffrey - Did the MI only on Enterprise restriction removal make the cut for the December updates just released?
- Jordan_GeurtenDec 13, 2022
Microsoft
Hi Ben, it was updated in the optional October C and November B security release - KB #5018482 and #5018483
- bdelamotte_83Oct 31, 2022Copper Contributor
Thanks Jeffrey. I'll look out for the updates. I have re-tested ISG on Pro mode devices, and it works provided the Application Identity service is running, even then post reboot. Manual intervention was required to make sure the service was running. Now that I recall, I may have found this on previous tests with Pro Mode, and Intune didn't start this as the documentation suggested. And last edit, I do not see the expected EA $KERNEL.SMARTLOCKER.ORIGINCLAIM as the documentation suggests.
- Jeffrey_SutherlandNov 15, 2022
Microsoft
We recently updated the managed installer and ISG technical reference article to clarify when and where to expect the SMARTLOCKER EA. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/windows-defender-application-control/configure-wdac-managed-installer. Briefly, for ISG, the EA will only be created when a file's trust is based on being installed by a trusted installer. Singleton binaries that are allowed by ISG won't have that EA set, which also means they are re-validated more aggressively.