STIGUI
V-278863CAT II — Medium severitySV-278863r1192833_rule

Microsoft Defender AV must set cloud protection level to High.

Rule version WNDF-AV-000073 · STIG v2 · 2026-09-02

Discussion

Cloud protection in Microsoft Defender Antivirus delivers accurate, real-time, and intelligent protection. Cloud protection should be enabled by default.

Check

Verify the policy value for Computer Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Windows Components >> Microsoft Defender Antivirus >> MpEngine >> Select cloud protection level is set to "Enabled". Verify the policy value for "Select cloud blocking level" is set to "High blocking level"; otherwise, this is a finding.

Procedure: Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key: HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender\MpEngine

Criteria: If the value "MpCloudBlockLevel" is REG_DWORD = 2, this is not a finding.

If the value is other than 2, this is a finding.

Fix

Set the policy value for Computer Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Windows Components >> Microsoft Defender Antivirus >> MpEngine >> Select cloud protection level to "Enabled".

Set policy value "Select cloud blocking level" to "High blocking level".

Identifiers

Group ID
V-278863
Group title
SRG-APP-000210
Rule ID
SV-278863r1192833_rule
Check ID
C-83397r1144084_chk
Fix ID
F-83302r1190776_fix