Cortex XDR greatly affects C++ build performance

[jjfernando]

I have a C++ project that I build using Visual Studio 2022. When I build it on a PC with Cortex XDR installed, the build takes more than 3 hours. It looks as if Cortex XDR is analyzing every .obj file generated during the build process.

Without Cortex XDR, the same build takes slightly less than 1 hour.

The Cortex XDR application and its configuration are managed by the IT department. What can I communicate to the IT department so that they can configure Cortex XDR appropriately, in such a way that we do not suffer this significant slowdown when building our projects?

[susekar]

Hello @jjfernando ,

Greetings for the day.

To resolve the significant build latency you are experiencing, you should communicate a specific set of Path Exclusions and Performance Tuning requests to your IT department. Visual Studio 2022 generates a massive volume of temporary files (.obj, .tlog, .pch, .pdb) and short-lived processes that trigger "Real-Time Protection" and "Behavioral Threat Protection" in Cortex XDR, leading to the 300% increase in build time you described.

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1. Process Exclusions (High Priority) Ask IT to add the following Visual Studio and C++ compiler executable paths to the Process Exclusion list. This prevents Cortex XDR from monitoring the child processes spawned by the IDE during every compilation step:

• C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC*\bin\Hostx64\x64\cl.exe (The C++ Compiler)
• C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC*\bin\Hostx64\x64\link.exe (The Linker)
• C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe (Visual Studio IDE)
• C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64*\MSBuild.exe (The Build Engine)

2. Path/Folder Exclusions (Performance Tuning) Request that IT exclude your specific project build directories from Real-Time Protection (Scan on Write/Open). This is where the thousands of .obj and .tlog files are generated:

• Your Project Root: D:\Path\To\Your\Source\Code* (Include subdirectories)
• Intermediate Output Folders: Usually named Debug/, Release/, x64/, or obj/ within your project structure.
• Visual Studio Temp Folders: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\VisualStudio*\


3. Behavioral Threat Protection (BTP) Tuning Since C++ builds involve many rapid process executions (a behavior that mimics some malware), ask IT to check if the Behavioral Threat Protection or Ransomware Protection modules are showing high "CPU/Disk overhead" logs for cl.exe. They may need to specifically exclude the compiler from these behavioral modules.

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Thanks & Regards,
S. Subashkar Sekar