The BYOVD ecosystem has matured into a commoditized capability used by both ransomware operators and APT actors to terminate EDR agents before payload delivery. The root cause is a structural gap in the Windows driver trust model: legitimately signed but vulnerable kernel drivers can be weaponized to execute privileged code and blind endpoint defenses. Microsoft’s Vulnerable Driver Blocklist and HVCI are the primary countermeasures, but neither is enforced by default on most enterprise configurations.