--- title: Enable ASR rules individually to protect your organization description: Enable ASR rules to protect your devices from attacks the use macros, scripts, and common injection techniques keywords: Attack surface reduction, hips, host intrusion prevention system, protection rules, anti-exploit, antiexploit, exploit, infection prevention, enable, turn on search.product: eADQiWindows 10XVcnh ms.pagetype: security ms.prod: w10 ms.mktglfcycl: manage ms.sitesec: library ms.pagetype: security ms.localizationpriority: medium author: andreabichsel ms.author: v-anbic ms.date: 06/29/2018 --- # Enable Attack surface reduction **Applies to:** - Windows 10, version 1709 and later - Windows Server 2016 **Audience** - Enterprise security administrators **Manageability available with** - Group Policy - PowerShell - Configuration service providers for mobile device management Supported in Windows 10 Enterprise E5, Attack surface reduction is a feature that is part of Windows Defender Exploit Guard. It helps prevent actions and apps that are typically used by exploit-seeking malware to infect machines. ## Enable and audit Attack surface reduction rules You can use Group Policy, PowerShell, or MDM CSPs to configure the state or mode for each rule. This can be useful if you only want to enable some rules, or you want to enable rules individually in audit mode. For further details on how audit mode works, and when you might want to use it, see the [audit Windows Defender Exploit Guard topic](audit-windows-defender-exploit-guard.md). Attack surface reduction rules are identified by their unique rule ID. You can manually add the rules by using the GUIDs in the following table: Rule description | GUID -|- Block executable content from email client and webmail | BE9BA2D9-53EA-4CDC-84E5-9B1EEEE46550 Block Office applications from creating child processes | D4F940AB-401B-4EFC-AADC-AD5F3C50688A Block Office applications from creating executable content | 3B576869-A4EC-4529-8536-B80A7769E899 Block Office applications from injecting code into other processes | 75668C1F-73B5-4CF0-BB93-3ECF5CB7CC84 Block JavaScript or VBScript from launching downloaded executable content | D3E037E1-3EB8-44C8-A917-57927947596D Block execution of potentially obfuscated scripts | 5BEB7EFE-FD9A-4556-801D-275E5FFC04CC Block Win32 API calls from Office macro | 92E97FA1-2EDF-4476-BDD6-9DD0B4DDDC7B Block executable files from running unless they meet a prevalence, age, or trusted list criteria | 01443614-cd74-433a-b99e-2ecdc07bfc25 Use advanced protection against ransomware | c1db55ab-c21a-4637-bb3f-a12568109d35 Block credential stealing from the Windows local security authority subsystem (lsass.exe) | 9e6c4e1f-7d60-472f-ba1a-a39ef669e4b2 Block process creations originating from PSExec and WMI commands | d1e49aac-8f56-4280-b9ba-993a6d77406c Block untrusted and unsigned processes that run from USB | b2b3f03d-6a65-4f7b-a9c7-1c7ef74a9ba4 Block Office communication applications from creating child processes (available for beta testing) | 26190899-1602-49e8-8b27-eb1d0a1ce869 See the [Attack surface reduction](attack-surface-reduction-exploit-guard.md) topic for details on each rule. ### Use Group Policy to enable or audit Attack surface reduction rules 1. On your Group Policy management machine, open the [Group Policy Management Console](https://technet.microsoft.com/library/cc731212.aspx), right-click the Group Policy Object you want to configure and click **Edit**. 3. In the **Group Policy Management Editor** go to **Computer configuration** and click **Administrative templates**. 5. Expand the tree to **Windows components > Windows Defender Antivirus > Windows Defender Exploit Guard > Attack surface reduction**. 6. Double-click the **Configure Attack surface reduction rules** setting and set the option to **Enabled**. You can then set the individual state for each rule in the options section: - Click **Show...** and enter the rule ID in the **Value name** column and your desired state in the **Value** column as follows: - Block mode = 1 - Disabled = 0 - Audit mode = 2 ![Group policy setting showing a blank ASR rule ID and value of 1](images/asr-rules-gp.png) ### Use PowerShell to enable or audit Attack surface reduction rules 1. Type **powershell** in the Start menu, right click **Windows PowerShell** and click **Run as administrator** 2. Enter the following cmdlet: ```PowerShell Set-MpPreference -AttackSurfaceReductionRules_Ids -AttackSurfaceReductionRules_Actions Enabled ``` You can enable the feature in audit mode using the following cmdlet: ```PowerShell Add-MpPreference -AttackSurfaceReductionRules_Ids -AttackSurfaceReductionRules_Actions AuditMode ``` Use `Disabled` insead of `AuditMode` or `Enabled` to turn the feature off. >[!IMPORTANT> >You must specify the state individually for each rule, but you can combine rules and states in a comma seperated list. > >In the following example, the first two rules will be enabled, the third rule will be disabled, and the fourth rule will be enabled in audit mode: > >```PowerShell >Set-MpPreference -AttackSurfaceReductionRules_Ids ,,, -AttackSurfaceReductionRules_Actions Enabled, Enabled, Disabled, AuditMode >``` You can also the `Add-MpPreference` PowerShell verb to add new rules to the existing list. >[!WARNING] >`Set-MpPreference` will always overwrite the existing set of rules. If you want to add to the existing set, you should use `Add-MpPreference` instead. >You can obtain a list of rules and their current state by using `Get-MpPreference` ### Use MDM CSPs to enable Attack surface reduction rules Use the [./Vendor/MSFT/Policy/Config/Defender/AttackSurfaceReductionRules](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/client-management/mdm/policy-csp-defender#defender-attacksurfacereductionrules) configuration service provider (CSP) to individually enable and set the mode for each rule. ## Related topics - [Reduce attack surfaces with Windows Defender Exploit Guard](attack-surface-reduction-exploit-guard.md) - [Customize Attack surface reduction](customize-attack-surface-reduction.md) - [Evaluate Attack surface reduction](evaluate-attack-surface-reduction.md)