smartscreen.exe
Summary
Windows Defender SmartScreen (smartscreen.exe) provides URL reputation checking and application reputation analysis. It warns users before opening downloaded files or visiting websites flagged as malicious or unrecognized.
smartscreen.exe is the 87th most commonly executed Windows program in EchoTrail's dataset, observed 294,897 times across enterprise environments. It typically runs from C:\Windows\System32 and it is most often launched by svchost.exe.
Behavior
Top Paths
- C:\Windows\System32100%
Top Hashes (SHA256)
- 9040de26d3a19913e23b3b5d22f95d52beddd133bd0c1b5893943680133b9c4630.17%
- 14540e9aad79b923448cf3d79b0ee891b0e27d343956786bcb33f2516a63609c9.55%
- 2029a748e267a157ded649c6beb08abd47d3b6b9a0dfeb547da6c3e82d16689f7.82%
- 111219e1022dcab31864c35de32baf34ce34fa580e2505d91ed1e3430ddfc3407%
- 9605680fc164acb985c031eca2c8bc4909cf8b749c571db6de2b0b2c204c21635.08%
- a2d860a406aa50bbba024d1cd40276d8a9ad7c58b2de9f86fad6d434488d90764.92%
- 533a950b1b8a63226573e93604c11c241ab1ae34e1be47d9919882a1681acb423.44%
- fe217f1b4da18ca0b1e469c7db6c220d00fba9e00425f2ba25c6c5b896401bf33.34%
- b0e5841175bde6c28bb6aaef222b90e930a29bbe5ac68be846218cf8590c2a982.65%
- 25c01d8eb584f71a4cc1dc988403bac5f1695a608c7aa792f94f1400b08483012.23%
Process Ancestry
Top Grandparents
- services.exe100%
Top Parents
- svchost.exe100%
Top Children
- mscorsvw.exe52.83%
- conhost.exe30.19%
- ClipUp.exe1.89%
- GoogleUpdate.exe1.89%
- WerFault.exe1.89%
Rare or environment-specific process names are omitted from ancestry tables. Percentages are of all observed relationships.
Security Analysis
What does smartscreen.exe normally do?
Located in C:\Windows\System32. Launched by svchost.exe. Single instance.
When is smartscreen.exe suspicious?
Running from a non-standard path. Parent other than svchost.exe. Spawning child processes.
How do attackers abuse smartscreen.exe?
SmartScreen bypass techniques are more relevant than abuse of smartscreen.exe itself. Attackers seek to bypass SmartScreen via Mark-of-the-Web (MOTW) removal, ISO/VHD container delivery (which may not inherit MOTW), or signed binary abuse.
Detection guidance
Focus on SmartScreen bypass detection rather than the process itself. Monitor for MOTW removal (alternate data stream deletion). Monitor for ISO/VHD/IMG file mounting followed by executable launch.
False positive notes
Normal system process.
Related Processes
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Data from EchoTrail's dataset of ~346M Windows process executions. Last extracted 2026-08-04.