﻿---
title: Prevent Elastic Agent uninstallation
description: For hosts enrolled in Elastic Defend, you can prevent unauthorized attempts to uninstall Elastic Agent and Elastic Endpoint by enabling Agent tamper protection...
url: https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/4399/solutions/security/configure-elastic-defend/prevent-elastic-agent-uninstallation
products:
  - Elastic Cloud Serverless
  - Elastic Security
---

# Prevent Elastic Agent uninstallation
For hosts enrolled in Elastic Defend, you can prevent unauthorized attempts to uninstall Elastic Agent and Elastic Endpoint by enabling **Agent tamper protection** on the Agent policy. This offers an additional layer of security by preventing users from bypassing or disabling Elastic Defend's endpoint protections.
When enabled, Elastic Agent and Elastic Endpoint can only be uninstalled on the host by including an uninstall token in the uninstall CLI command. One unique uninstall token is generated per Agent policy, and you can retrieve uninstall tokens in an Agent policy’s settings or in the Fleet UI.
<admonition title="Requirements">
  - In Elastic Stack, agent tamper protection requires a [Platinum or higher subscription](https://www.elastic.co/pricing).
  - In Serverless, agent tamper protection requires the Endpoint Protection Complete [project feature tier](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/4399/deploy-manage/deploy/elastic-cloud/project-settings).
  - Hosts must be enrolled in the Elastic Defend integration.
  - Elastic Agents must be version 8.11.0 or later.
  - This feature is supported for all operating systems.
</admonition>

![Agent tamper protection setting highlighted on Agent policy settings page](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/4399/solutions/images/security-agent-tamper-protection.png)


## Enable Agent tamper protection

You can enable Agent tamper protection by configuring the Elastic Agent policy.
1. Find **Fleet** in the navigation menu or by using the [global search field](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/4399/explore-analyze/find-and-organize/find-apps-and-objects).
2. Select **Agent policies**, then select the Agent policy you want to configure.
3. Select the **Settings** tab on the policy details page.
4. In the **Agent tamper protection** section, turn on the **Prevent agent tampering** setting.
   This makes the **Get uninstall command** link available, which you can follow to get the uninstall token and CLI command if you need to [uninstall an Agent](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/4399/solutions/security/configure-elastic-defend/uninstall-elastic-agent) on this policy.
   <tip>
   You can also access an Agent policy’s uninstall tokens on the **Uninstall tokens** tab on the **Fleet** page. Refer to [Access uninstall tokens](#fleet-uninstall-tokens) for more information.
   </tip>
5. Select **Save changes**.


## Access uninstall tokens

If you need the uninstall token to remove Elastic Agent from an endpoint, you can find it in several ways:
- **On the Agent policy**: Go to the Agent policy’s **Settings** tab, then click the **Get uninstall command** link. The **Uninstall agent** flyout opens, containing the full uninstall command with the token.
- **On the Fleet page**: Select **Uninstall tokens** for a list of the uninstall tokens generated for your Agent policies. You can:
  - Click the **Show token** icon in the **Token** column to reveal a specific token.
- Click the **View uninstall command** icon in the **Actions** column to open the **Uninstall agent** flyout, containing the full uninstall command with the token.

<tip>
  If you have many tamper-protected Elastic Agent policies, you may want to [provide multiple uninstall tokens](/elastic/docs-content/pull/4399/solutions/security/configure-elastic-defend/uninstall-elastic-agent#multiple-uninstall-tokens) in a single command.
</tip>