Potential Application Shimming via Sdbinstedit

The Application Shim was created to allow for backward compatibility of software as the operating system codebase changes over time. This Windows functionality has been abused by attackers to stealthily gain persistence and arbitrary code execution in legitimate Windows processes.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

  • winlogbeat-*
  • logs-endpoint.events.*
  • logs-windows.*
  • endgame-*

Severity: low

Risk score: 21

Runs every: 5m

Searches indices from: now-9m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References: None

Tags:

  • Domain: Endpoint
  • OS: Windows
  • Use Case: Threat Detection
  • Tactic: Persistence
  • Data Source: Elastic Endgame

Version: 105

Rule authors:

  • Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Investigation guideedit


Rule queryedit

process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and process.name : "sdbinst.exe" and
  not (process.args : "-m" and process.args : "-bg") and
  not process.args : "-mm"

Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM