# Mattiwatti/EfiGuard

Disable PatchGuard and Driver Signature Enforcement at boot time

Repository: https://github.com/Mattiwatti/EfiGuard
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/efiguard
Language: C++
License: GPL-3.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: patchguard, efi, uefi, bootkit, driver, kernel, signing, windows
Last push: 2026-06-16T23:48:44+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 62/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 87, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2718, "days_push": 78, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2523, forks 410 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:58.384128+00:00)

## What it is
EfiGuard is a portable x64 UEFI bootkit that patches the Windows boot manager, boot loader, and kernel at boot time to disable PatchGuard and Driver Signature Enforcement. It supports all EFI-compatible x64 Windows versions from Vista SP1 to Windows 11 and can be booted from a USB stick or the EFI partition.

## Use cases
- disable patchguard on windows at boot
- bypass driver signature enforcement to load unsigned drivers
- boot windows with kernel patches from a usb stick
- load unsigned kernel drivers on windows 11
- research windows boot process and secure boot internals

## When to choose
- you need to load unsigned kernel drivers for research or testing on any x64 EFI Windows version
- you want a passive bootkit that unloads itself when a non-Windows OS is booted
- you need debuggable, graceful-failure boot-time patching with kernel debugger output

## When to avoid
- you need a production or end-user security solution rather than a research tool
- your system uses secure boot with third-party CA enforcement that cannot be disabled
- you only need to disable DSE at runtime without rebooting

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: security, reverse-engineering
- domain: security, operating-systems, windows
- platform: windows, cpp
- tags: uefi-bootkit, patchguard, driver-signature-enforcement, kernel, dse-bypass, bootkit

## Member repositories
- Mattiwatti/EfiGuard (main) score 62

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:58.384128+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T02:25:38.033209+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/Mattiwatti/EfiGuard (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:58.384128+00:00, sha c6d9fb4d3437)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.