Baphomet's Black Market Bypass

The underground community is a buzz with the introduction of a new, high-stakes threat: an Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Killer being marketed by the actor known as Baphomet. This sophisticated evasion tool is explicitly designed to neutralize the industry's leading security products. With an audacious asking price of $100,000, Baphomet has released compelling video demonstrations to justify this significant investment, signalling a major leap in anti-analysis and defense-evasion capabilities available to sophisticated attackers.

Targeted EDR/XDR Platforms

The seller claims widespread efficacy against a broad spectrum of the most deployed enterprise security solutions. The scope of targeted platforms is extensive and includes:

• CrowdStrike

• SentinelOne

• Microsoft Defender

• Cortex

• Elastic EDR

• Sophos XDR Intercept X

• Bitdefender EDR

• Eset Business Edition (EDR)

• McAfee

• Avira

Note: The seller also offers to customize the tool to target "Any other EDR/AV" upon request.

Technical Analysis

Baphomet’s marketing materials boast several bold claims regarding the tool's effectiveness across modern Windows operating systems (Win7/Server 2008R2 up to Win11/Server 2025). We break down the most critical claims for security professionals:

Kernel Protection Bypass (HVCI)

The tool can load "private kernel drivers" or utilize "two vulnerable kernel drivers" even when Hypervisor-protected Code Integrity (HVCI) and other kernel protections are enabled.

Analysis: This is a crucial, high-impact claim. Defeating HVCI and similar controls is typically achieved through one of two methods:

1. Bring-Your-Own-Vulnerable-Driver(BYOVD): This involves exploiting a legitimately signed but flawed driver to obtain kernel-level privileges (Ring-0) through insecure Input/Output Control codes (IOCTLs). This is the most likely scenario, as the mention of "two vulnerable kernel drivers" strongly suggests a BYOVD chain to gain memory write access and subsequently execute malicious code or load an unsigned payload driver.

2. Chaining a zero-day exploit that specifically defeats integrity protections.

Implication: Achieving Ring-0 access is the "holy grail" for evasion, as it allows the attacker to operate beneath the security layer, directly patching, unregistering, or disabling EDR sensors and callbacks.

Protected Process Termination

Protected processes can be deleted without any warnings or alarms.

Analysis: Modern EDR agents run as Protected Process Light (PPL) or utilize kernel-registered callbacks to prevent termination from user-mode. Overcoming these protections requires a successful elevation to kernel privilege. This claim is entirely consistent with the HVCI bypass, as Ring-0 access would allow the threat actor to:

• Unregister kernel-level monitoring and control callbacks (e.g., MiniFilter, file system, process creation, registry).

• Directly patch or disable the EDR agent's process protection mechanisms in memory.

Persistence and Stealth

System reboot not required; if reboot occurs, EDR/AV will be disabled.

Analysis: The "no reboot required" part suggests the EDR Killer focuses on immediate, in-memory neutralization of the EDR sensor's active components. The subsequent claim, that the EDR/AV remains disabled after a system reboot, implies a focus on persistence and suppression through system modification, such as:

• Modifying EDR service startup types(e.g., from Auto to Disabled).

• Deleting or renaming critical driver or executable files.

• Creating a persistent boot-time artifact (potentially their own persistent driver) that specifically prevents the security sensor from loading or re-registering its callbacks.

The emergence of such a high-priced, multi-platform evasion tool underscores the growing need to move beyond reliance on EDR alone.

Mitigations

Zero Trust Principles: Limit the impact of any breach by restricting lateral movement, even after an endpoint's defenses have been disabled.

Patching and Inventory: Aggressively patch vulnerable drivers, especially those that are candidates for BYOVD attacks. Maintain a meticulous software inventory to identify and remove all non-essential and outdated software that could contain exploitable drivers.

Kernel Integrity Monitoring: Deploy security solutions that specifically focus on kernel integrity and monitor for abnormal activity, such as the loading of unsigned drivers or the unauthorized modification of system structures and memory (e.g., callbacks).

Beyond the Endpoint: Enhance network and log-based detection. An attacker using this tool will still need to perform actions after the EDR is killed (e.g., discovery, lateral movement).