Configure Child Process Protection

Configure a new malware protection rule.
Select
Policies
Malware
Protection Modules
.
Select
Windows
as the operating system (child process protection is not supported on Mac endpoints).
From the action menu
, select
Add
.
Select
Child Process Protection
and configure the rule settings:
Activation
—Select
On
to enable child process protection or
Off
to disable child process protection.
Action
—Select the action to take when a process attempts to call a child process: Block the child process from running (
Prevention
), or permit the child process to run and log the issue (
Notification
). Alternatively, you can choose to
Inherit
the behavior from the preceding rule in the rule hierarchy.
To view additional details about the default policy, select
Policies
Malware
Protection Modules
and then select
Show Default Rules
from the action menu.
User Alert
—Specify the notification behavior when a process attempts to call a child process, either
On
to notify the user, or
Off
to suppress notifications. Alternatively, you can choose to
Inherit
the behavior from the preceding rule in the rule hierarchy.
Configure the behavior of the module:
Select the
Behavior
of the module: Use
Allowed Processes
to configure a whitelist or
Restricted Processes
to configure a blacklist.
Determine how you want Traps to evaluate child processes initiated by the parent process:
Child Process List
—To allow or block child processes without evaluating command-line arguments, add one or more processes to the
Child Process List
(one per line). Traps whitelists or blacklists these processes according to the
Behavior
you selected in the previous step. If you select
Restricted Process
behavior, Traps adds any child processes you specify to the blacklist which is defined in the content update of your security policy.
To block or allow a source process to run all child processes, select
Single Process
, and leave both fields blank.
Single Process
—To evaluate the command-line parameters of a single child process, enter the child process path (full or partial) and the parameters. If you specify only the process name, Traps evaluates the process run from any path. For example, if you specify
cscript.exe
with the parameter
C:\myorg\myorgscript.bat
and a
Behavior
of
Restricted Processes
, the parent process (which you define on the
Processes
tab) will not be allowed to run the child process (in this example,
cscript.exe
) with the defined parameter. When you have multiple rules for the same parent and child process, Traps merges the command-line parameters for all user and default policy rules.
These options also support the same environment variables and wildcards that you can use in restriction rules. For example, to configure a rule for iexplorer.exe which blocks that process from launching SCR files from the temp folder, you can use environment variables and wildcards to specify
%temp%\*.scr
. For more information about using environment variables and wildcards, see Wildcards and Variables in Policy Rules.
Select the
Processes
tab and
Add
one or more source processes to which Traps will apply child process protection. As you type, the ESM Console provides auto-completion based the list of processes defined in the ESM Console.
(
Optional
) Add Conditions to the rule. By default, a new rule does not contain any conditions.
To specify a condition, select the
Conditions
tab, select the condition in the Conditions list, and then
Add
it to the Selected Conditions list. Repeat this step to add more conditions, as needed. You can also define new Conditions.
(
Optional
) Define the Target Objects to which to apply the rule.
To define a smaller subset of target objects, select the
Objects
tab, and then enter one or more
AD Users
,
AD Computers
,
AD Groups
,
AD Organizational Unit
,
Existing Endpoints
, or
Existing Groups
in the Include or Exclude areas. The Endpoint Security Manager queries Active Directory to verify the users, computers, groups, or organizational units. The ESM Console also offers autocompletion as you type for existing endpoints and existing virtual groups.
(
Optional
) Review the rule name and description. The ESM Console automatically generates the rule name and description based on the rule details but permits you to change these fields, if needed.
To override the autogenerated name, select the
Name
tab, clear the
Activate automatic description
option, and then enter a rule name and description of your choice.
Save the malware protection rule.
Do either of the following:
Save
the rule without activating it. This option is only available for inactive, cloned, or new rules. When you are ready to activate the rule, select the rule from the
Policies
Exploit
Protection Modules
page and then click
Activate
.
Apply
the rule to activate it immediately.
After saving or applying a rule, you can return to the
Protection Modules
page at any time to
Delete
or
Deactivate
the rule.