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Deploy Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Linux manually

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Tip

Looking for advanced guidance on deploying Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Linux? See Advanced deployment guide on Defender for Endpoint on Linux.

This article describes how to deploy Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Linux manually. A successful deployment requires the completion of all of the following tasks:

Prerequisites and system requirements

Before you get started, see Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Linux for a description of prerequisites and system requirements for the current software version.

Warning

Upgrading your operating system to a new major version after the product installation requires the product to be reinstalled. You need to Uninstall the existing Defender for Endpoint on Linux, upgrade the operating system, and then reconfigure Defender for Endpoint on Linux following the below steps.

Configure the Linux software repository

Defender for Endpoint on Linux can be deployed from one of the following channels (denoted as [channel]): insiders-fast, insiders-slow, or prod. Each of these channels corresponds to a Linux software repository. The instructions in this article describe configuring your device to use one of these repositories.

The choice of the channel determines the type and frequency of updates that are offered to your device. Devices in insiders-fast are the first ones to receive updates and new features, followed later by insiders-slow and lastly by prod.

In order to preview new features and provide early feedback, it's recommended that you configure some devices in your enterprise to use either insiders-fast or insiders-slow.

Warning

Switching the channel after the initial installation requires the product to be reinstalled. To switch the product channel: uninstall the existing package, re-configure your device to use the new channel, and follow the steps in this document to install the package from the new location.

Installer script

While we discuss manual installation, alternatively, you can use an automated installer bash script provided in our public GitHub repository. The script identifies the distribution and version, simplifies the selection of the right repository, sets up the device to pull the latest package, and combines the product installation and onboarding steps.

> ./mde_installer.sh --help
usage: basename ./mde_installer.sh [OPTIONS]
Options:
-c|--channel      specify the channel from which you want to install. Default: insiders-fast
-i|--install      install the product
-r|--remove       remove the product
-u|--upgrade      upgrade the existing product
-o|--onboard      onboard/offboard the product with <onboarding_script>
-p|--passive-mode set EPP to passive mode
-t|--tag          set a tag by declaring <name> and <value>. ex: -t GROUP Coders
-m|--min_req      enforce minimum requirements
-w|--clean        remove repo from package manager for a specific channel
-v|--version      print out script version
-h|--help         display help

Read more here.

RHEL and variants (CentOS, Fedora, Oracle Linux, Amazon Linux 2, Rocky, and Alma)

SLES and variants

Note

Your distribution and version, and identify the closest entry (by major, then minor) for it under https://packages.microsoft.com/config/sles/.

In the following commands, replace [distro] and [version] with the information you've identified:

sudo zypper addrepo -c -f -n microsoft-[channel] https://packages.microsoft.com/config/[distro]/[version]/[channel].repo

Tip

Use SPident command to identify system related information including release [version].

For example, if you're running SLES 12 and wish to deploy Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Linux from the prod channel:

sudo zypper addrepo -c -f -n microsoft-prod https://packages.microsoft.com/config/sles/12/prod.repo

  • Install the Microsoft GPG public key:

    sudo rpm --import https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc

Ubuntu and Debian systems

  • Install curl if it isn't installed yet:

    sudo apt-get install curl

  • Install libplist-utils if it isn't installed yet:

    sudo apt-get install libplist-utils

    Note

    Your distribution and version, and identify the closest entry (by major, then minor) for it under https://packages.microsoft.com/config/[distro]/.

    In the following command, replace [distro] and [version] with the information you've identified:

    curl -o microsoft.list https://packages.microsoft.com/config/[distro]/[version]/[channel].list

    Tip

    Use hostnamectl command to identify system related information including release [version].

    For example, if you're running Ubuntu 18.04 and wish to deploy Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Linux from the prod channel:

    curl -o microsoft.list https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/18.04/prod.list

  • Install the repository configuration:

    sudo mv ./microsoft.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/microsoft-[channel].list

    For example, if you chose prod channel:

    sudo mv ./microsoft.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/microsoft-prod.list

  • Install the gpg package if not already installed:

    sudo apt-get install gpg

    If gpg isn't available, then install gnupg.

    sudo apt-get install gnupg

  • Install the Microsoft GPG public key:

    • For Debian 11 and earlier, run the following command.
    curl -sSL https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/microsoft.gpg > /dev/null

For Debian 12 and later, run the following command.

curl -sSL https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/microsoft-prod.gpg > /dev/null

  • Install the HTTPS driver if not already installed:

    sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https

  • Update the repository metadata:

    sudo apt-get update

Mariner

  • Install dnf-plugins-core if it isn't installed yet:

    sudo dnf install dnf-plugins-core

  • Configure and Enable the required repositories

    Note

    On Mariner, Insider Fast Channel is not available.

    If you want to deploy Defender for Endpoint on Linux from the prod channel. Use the following commands

    sudo dnf install mariner-repos-extras
sudo dnf config-manager --enable mariner-official-extras

    Or if you wish to explore new features on selected devices, you might want to deploy Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Linux to insiders-slow channel. Use the following commands:

    sudo dnf install mariner-repos-extras-preview
sudo dnf config-manager --enable mariner-official-extras-preview

Application installation

RHEL and variants (CentOS, Fedora, Oracle Linux, Amazon Linux 2, Rocky, and Alma)

sudo yum install mdatp

Note

If you have multiple Microsoft repositories configured on your device, you can be specific about which repository to install the package from. The following example shows how to install the package from the production channel if you also have the insiders-fast repository channel configured on this device. This situation can happen if you are using multiple Microsoft products on your device. Depending on the distribution and the version of your server, the repository alias might be different than the one in the following example.

# list all repositories
yum repolist

...
packages-microsoft-com-prod               packages-microsoft-com-prod        316
packages-microsoft-com-prod-insiders-fast packages-microsoft-com-prod-ins      2
...

# install the package from the production repository
sudo yum --enablerepo=packages-microsoft-com-prod install mdatp

SLES and variants

sudo zypper install mdatp

Note

If you have multiple Microsoft repositories configured on your device, you can be specific about which repository to install the package from. The following example shows how to install the package from the production channel if you also have the insiders-fast repository channel configured on this device. This situation can happen if you are using multiple Microsoft products on your device.

zypper repos

...
#  | Alias | Name | ...
XX | packages-microsoft-com-insiders-fast | microsoft-insiders-fast | ...
XX | packages-microsoft-com-prod | microsoft-prod | ...
...

sudo zypper install packages-microsoft-com-prod:mdatp

Ubuntu and Debian systems

sudo apt-get install mdatp

Note

If you have multiple Microsoft repositories configured on your device, you can be specific about which repository to install the package from. The following example shows how to install the package from the production channel if you also have the insiders-fast repository channel configured on this device. This situation can happen if you are using multiple Microsoft products on your device.

cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*

deb [arch=arm64,armhf,amd64] https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/18.04/prod insiders-fast main
deb [arch=amd64] https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/18.04/prod bionic main

sudo apt -t bionic install mdatp

Note

Reboots are NOT required after installing or updating Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Linux except when you're running auditD in immutable mode.

Mariner

sudo dnf install mdatp

Note

If you have multiple Microsoft repositories configured on your device, you can be specific about which repository to install the package from. The following example shows how to install the package from the production channel if you also have the insiders-slow repository channel configured on this device. This situation can happen if you are using multiple Microsoft products on your device.

sudo dnf config-manager --disable mariner-official-extras-preview
sudo dnf config-manager --enable mariner-official-extras

Download the onboarding package

Download the onboarding package from Microsoft Defender portal.

Warning

Repackaging the Defender for Endpoint installation package is not a supported scenario. Doing so can negatively impact the integrity of the product and lead to adverse results, including but not limited to triggering tampering alerts and updates failing to apply.

Important

If you miss this step, any command executed will show a warning message indicating that the product is unlicensed. Also the mdatp health command returns a value of false.

  1. In the Microsoft Defender portal, go to Settings > Endpoints > Device management > Onboarding.

  2. In the first drop-down menu, select Linux Server as the operating system. In the second drop-down menu, select Local Script as the deployment method.

  3. Select Download onboarding package. Save the file as WindowsDefenderATPOnboardingPackage.zip.

    Downloading an onboarding package in the Microsoft Defender portal

  4. From a command prompt, verify that you have the file, and extract the contents of the archive:

    ls -l

    total 8
-rw-r--r-- 1 test  staff  5752 Feb 18 11:22 WindowsDefenderATPOnboardingPackage.zip

    unzip WindowsDefenderATPOnboardingPackage.zip

    Archive:  WindowsDefenderATPOnboardingPackage.zip
inflating: MicrosoftDefenderATPOnboardingLinuxServer.py

Client configuration

  1. Copy MicrosoftDefenderATPOnboardingLinuxServer.py to the target device.

    Note

    Initially the client device is not associated with an organization and the orgId attribute is blank.

    mdatp health --field org_id

  2. Run MicrosoftDefenderATPOnboardingLinuxServer.py.

    Note

    To run this command, you must have python or python3 installed on the device depending on the distro and version. If needed, see Step-by-step Instructions for Installing Python on Linux.

    Note

    To onboard a device that was previously offboarded you must remove the mdatp_offboard.json file located at /etc/opt/microsoft/mdatp.

    If you're running RHEL 8.x or Ubuntu 20.04 or higher, you need to use python3.

    sudo python3 MicrosoftDefenderATPOnboardingLinuxServer.py

    For the rest of distros and versions, you need to use python.

    sudo python MicrosoftDefenderATPOnboardingLinuxServer.py

  3. Verify that the device is now associated with your organization and reports a valid organization identifier:

    mdatp health --field org_id

  4. Check the health status of the product by running the following command. A return value of true denotes that the product is functioning as expected:

    mdatp health --field healthy

    Important

    When the product starts for the first time, it downloads the latest antimalware definitions. This may take up to a few minutes depending on the network connectivity. During this time the above command returns a value of false. You can check the status of the definition update using the following command:

    mdatp health --field definitions_status

    Please note that you may also need to configure a proxy after completing the initial installation. See Configure Defender for Endpoint on Linux for static proxy discovery: Post-installation configuration.

  5. Run an AV detection test to verify that the device is properly onboarded and reporting to the service. Perform the following steps on the newly onboarded device:

    • Ensure that real-time protection is enabled (denoted by a result of true from running the following command):

      mdatp health --field real_time_protection_enabled

      If it isn't enabled, execute the following command:

      mdatp config real-time-protection --value enabled

    • Open a Terminal window and execute the following command to run a detection test:

      curl -o /tmp/eicar.com.txt https://secure.eicar.org/eicar.com.txt

    • You can run more detection tests on zip files using either of the following commands:

      curl -o /tmp/eicar_com.zip https://secure.eicar.org/eicar_com.zip
curl -o /tmp/eicarcom2.zip https://secure.eicar.org/eicarcom2.zip

    • The files should be quarantined by Defender for Endpoint on Linux. Use the following command to list all the detected threats:

      mdatp threat list

  6. Run an EDR detection test and simulate a detection to verify that the device is properly onboarded and reporting to the service. Perform the following steps on the newly onboarded device:

  • Verify that the onboarded Linux server appears in Microsoft Defender XDR. If this is the first onboarding of the machine, it can take up to 20 minutes until it appears.

    • Download and extract the script file to an onboarded Linux server and run the following command: ./mde_linux_edr_diy.sh

    • After a few minutes, a detection should be raised in Microsoft Defender XDR.

    • Look at the alert details, machine timeline, and perform your typical investigation steps.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint package external package dependencies

The following external package dependencies exist for the mdatp package:

  • The mdatp RPM package requires glibc >= 2.17, audit, policycoreutils, semanage selinux-policy-targeted, mde-netfilter
  • For DEBIAN the mdatp package requires libc6 >= 2.23, uuid-runtime, auditd, mde-netfilter
  • For Mariner the mdatp package requires attr, audit, diffutils, libacl, libattr, libselinux-utils, selinux-policy, policycoreutils, mde-netfilter

The mde-netfilter package also has the following package dependencies:

  • For DEBIAN, the mde-netfilter package requires libnetfilter-queue1, libglib2.0-0
  • For RPM, the mde-netfilter package requires libmnl, libnfnetlink, libnetfilter_queue, glib2
  • For Mariner, the mde-netfilter package requires libnfnetlink, libnetfilter_queue

If the Microsoft Defender for Endpoint installation fails due to missing dependencies errors, you can manually download the prerequisite dependencies.

Log installation issues

See Log installation issues for more information on how to find the automatically generated log that is created by the installer when an error occurs.

How to migrate from Insiders-Fast to Production channel

  1. Uninstall the Insiders-Fast channel version of Defender for Endpoint on Linux.

    sudo yum remove mdatp

  2. Disable the Defender for Endpoint on Linux Insiders-Fast repo

    sudo yum repolist

    Note

    The output should show packages-microsoft-com-fast-prod.

    sudo yum-config-manager --disable packages-microsoft-com-fast-prod

  3. Redeploy Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Linux using the Production channel.

Uninstallation

See Uninstall for details on how to remove Defender for Endpoint on Linux from client devices.

See also

Tip

Do you want to learn more? Engage with the Microsoft Security community in our Tech Community: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Tech Community.