The Book of EDR

EDR, demystified! Stay a step ahead of attackers with this comprehensive guide to understanding the attack-detection software running on Microsoft systems—and how to evade it.

Nearly every enterprise uses an Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agent to monitor the devices on their network for signs of an attack. But that doesn't mean security defenders grasp how these systems actually work. This book demystifies EDR, taking you on a deep dive into how EDRs detect adversary activity. Chapter by chapter, you’ll learn that EDR is not a magical black box—it’s just a complex software application built around a few easy-to-understand components.

The author uses his years of experience as a red team operator to investigate each of the most common sensor components, discussing their purpose, explaining their implementation, and showing the ways they collect various data points from the Microsoft operating system. In addition to covering the theory behind designing an effective EDR, each chapter also reveals documented evasion strategies for bypassing EDRs that red teamers can use in their engagements.

Matt Hand is an experienced red team operator with over a decade of experience. His primary areas of focus are in vulnerability research and EDR evasion where he spends a large amount of time conducting independent research, developing tooling, and publishing content. Matt is currently a Service Architect at SpecterOps where he focuses on improving the technical and execution capabilities of the Adversary Simulation team, as well as serving as a subject matter expert on evasion tradecraft.

Introduction
Chapter 1: EDR-chitecture
Chapter 2: Function-Hooking DLLs
Chapter 3: Thread and Process Notifications
Chapter 4: Object Notifications
Chapter 5: Image-Load and Registry Notifications
Chapter 6: Minifilters
Chapter 7: Network Filter Drivers
Chapter 8: Event Tracing for Windows
Chapter 9: Scanners
Chapter 10: Anti-Malware Scan Interface
Chapter 11: Early Launch Anti-Malware Drivers
Chapter 12: Microsoft-Windows-Threat-Intelligence
Chapter 13: A Detection-Aware Attack
Appendix