These typically shouldn’t be taking up a lot of processing power though. Programs and other processes use your CPU’s speed and memory to function. Some programs are more demanding than others, but each takes a percentage of your CPU’s power. The process should take around 15 to 30 minutes, depending on computer specifications, although it runs for a long time on a PC that uses outdated hardware. For that reason, in some cases, the only way to solve SetupHost.exe high CPU or disk usage is to upgrade your system. The process, which is also known as SetupHost.exe, is running in the background during the Windows update installation process and can be viewed via the Task Manager.
LSASS stores its list of Security Packages in the registry, which can be edited to add a new package with the ability to access LSASS. The large amount of information stored in the registry makes it a noisy source of telemetry if you don’t know where to look.
- On the one hand, an annoying antivirus will cause high CPU usage.
- It is possible to modify the entries of the Windows Registry.
- If you want to undo the changes and password-protect your computer, you should disable auto logon.
- RegDllViewRegDllView is a small utility that displays the list of all registered dll/ocx/exe files .
- Now you should see the familiar Registry Editor window like the screenshot below.
User file association preferences are stored under ` SoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerFileExts` and override associations configured under “. Changes to a user’s preference will occur under this entry’s subkeys.
Disk, CPU, Memory, Power usage spikes
With this set, if the victim was to reboot the machine and log back in, the empire.exe binary will get executed resulting in a new session. We only examined methods that use the registry, yet we’ve already observed an extensive range of potential ways to gain persistence. Unfortunately, there is a decent chance that the methods discussed here are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to obscure persistence techniques used in the registry. If the key exists and has the StartupPrograms value set to an executable, Windows will launch the executable during login. By default, this key is set to rdpclip, which results in that process launching after an RDP login.
What Is Windows Registry? [MiniTool Wiki]
The results from the RE usually indicate if “interesting” functions exist – such as functions where timestomping of registry keys may occur. Because all major operating systems feature utilities to schedule programs or scripts to be executed, this persistence mechanism is a risk for nearly everyone. We also tested other Microsoft Office applications to see which would load a DLL from the “Office Test” registry key, which includes Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Outlook, OneNote and Publisher. Figure 5 shows a graphical representation of applications loading the payload directly from the executable versus using a separate DLL file. The attempt to open this key fails because the key does not exist with nw_elf.dll a default installation of Microsoft Office.
A second user-specific registry file named UsrClass.dat contains COM registry entries and does not roam by default. The kernel will access it to read and enforce the security policy applicable to the current user and all applications or operations executed by this user. It also contains a “SAM” subkey which is dynamically linked to the SAM database of the domain onto which the current user is logged on. Stored each program’s user settings in a separate file.