Elastic Security Detection Rules

Potential Application Shimming via Sdbinst

Last updated a month ago on 2025-12-01
Created 6 years ago on 2020-02-18

About

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.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: PersistenceData Source: Elastic EndgameData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: Windows Security Event LogsData Source: Microsoft Defender for EndpointData Source: SysmonData Source: SentinelOneData Source: CrowdstrikeLanguage: eql
Severity
low
Risk Score
21
MITRE ATT&CK™

Persistence (TA0003)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Event Triggered Execution (T1546)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Privilege Escalation (TA0004)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Event Triggered Execution (T1546)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

License
Elastic License v2(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Definition

Rule Type
Event Correlation Rule
Integration Pack
Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns
endgame-*logs-crowdstrike.fdr*logs-endpoint.events.process-*logs-m365_defender.event-*logs-sentinel_one_cloud_funnel.*logs-system.security*logs-windows.forwarded*logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*winlogbeat-*
Related Integrations

endpoint(external, opens in a new tab or window)

windows(external, opens in a new tab or window)

system(external, opens in a new tab or window)

m365_defender(external, opens in a new tab or window)

sentinel_one_cloud_funnel(external, opens in a new tab or window)

crowdstrike(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Query
text code block:
process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and process.name : "sdbinst.exe" and
  process.args : "?*" and
  not (process.args : "-m" and process.args : "-bg") and
  not process.args : (
    "-mm",
    "?:\\Program Files\\WindowsApps\\Microsoft.ApplicationCompatibilityEnhancements_*\\sdb\\sysMergeInboxStoreApp.sdb",
    "\"?:\\Program Files\\WindowsApps\\Microsoft.ApplicationCompatibilityEnhancements_*\\sdb\\sysMergeInboxStoreApp.sdb\"",
    "?:\\Program Files\\WindowsApps\\Microsoft.ApplicationCompatibilityEnhancements_*\\sdb\\msiMergeInboxStoreApp.sdb",
    "\"?:\\Program Files\\WindowsApps\\Microsoft.ApplicationCompatibilityEnhancements_*\\sdb\\msiMergeInboxStoreApp.sdb\"",
    "?:\\Program Files (x86)\\Citrix\\ICA Client\\CitrixWorkspaceLegacySWDA.sdb",
    "Citrix Workspace",
    "C:\\Program Files\\IIS Express\\iisexpressshim.sdb",
    "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\IIS Express\\iisexpressshim.sdb"
  )

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Potential Application Shimming via Sdbinst in the Elastic Security detection engine by installing this rule into your Elastic Stack.

To setup this rule, check out the installation guide for Prebuilt Security Detection Rules(external, opens in a new tab or window).