Exam CS0-003 topic 1 question 237 discussion

Breakdown of the Command: Add-MpPreference: This is a cmdlet used in PowerShell to add or change preferences for Windows Defender settings. –ExclusionPath: This parameter specifies a path to exclude from scanning by Windows Defender. Files and directories located at the specified path will not be scanned for malware or other threats. ‘%Program Files%\ksyconfig’: This specifies the actual path to be excluded from scans. The %Program Files% is an environment variable that points to the Program Files directory, which is typically located at C:\Program Files on most Windows installations. The ksyconfig is presumably a folder within the Program Files directory. The answer is D, Defense Evasion.

The command Add-MpPreference –ExclusionPath ‘%Program Files%\ksyconfig’ is used to exclude a specific path from Windows Defender scanning. This is a typical defense evasion technique where malware tries to hide itself by configuring the system to ignore its files or directories, allowing it to operate undetected.

It looks like the command is telling the PCs antivirus to add a specific folder to an exclusion list so whatever happens in that folder will be allowed. I assume there are scripts being ran from the folder that exfiltrate data via dns that would normally be blocked without the exclusion folder

The attacker fooled the user to download a program to gain access to the network via the user's workstation.