- Home
- Security Operations
- Offensive Security
- Abusing the COM Registry Structure: CLSID, LocalServer32, & InprocServer32

Abusing the COM Registry Structure: CLSID, LocalServer32, & InprocServer32
Abusing the COM Registry Structure: CLSID, LocalServer32, & InprocServer32

Abusing the COM Registry Structure: CLSID, LocalServer32, & InprocServer32
Abusing the COM Registry Structure: CLSID, LocalServer32, & InprocServer32
Abusing the COM Registry Structure: CLSID, LocalServer32, & InprocServer32 Description
Vendors are notorious for including and/or leaving behind Registry artifacts that could potentially be abused by attackers for lateral movement, evasion, bypass, and persistence. CLSIDs subkeys (LocalServer32 and InprocServer32) can be enumerated to discover abandoned binary references. Interestingly, CLSIDs can be called (‘invoked’) with this command: rundll32.exe -sta {CLSID} Defensive recommendations – clean up artifacts after removal (e.g. unregister), monitor for suspicious events (e.g. rundll32.exe usage), and implement strong Application Whitelisting (AWL) policies/rules. Background Previously, I blogged about a DCOM lateral movement technique that took advantage of a missing file that was referenced in a registry Class Identifier (CLSID) subkey-value on Windows 2008/2012 hosts. After seeing the impact of that technique, the entire notion of COM (Component Object Model) & key-value path hijacking became even more fascinating to me. As such, I decided to revisit CSLIDs, LocalServer32, and InprocServer32 to (hopefully) uncover even more interesting findings. In this post, we will discuss: The purpose of CLSIDs, LocalServer32, and InprocServer32 A slight
FEATURED
Password manager with end-to-end encryption and identity protection features
VPN service providing encrypted internet connections and privacy protection
Fractional CISO services for B2B companies to accelerate sales and compliance
Stay Updated with Mandos Brief
Get the latest cybersecurity updates in your inbox
TRENDING CATEGORIES
POPULAR
A cybersecurity platform that offers vulnerability scanning, Windows Defender and 3rd party AV management, and MFA compliance reporting, among other features.
Security platform that provides protection, monitoring and governance for enterprise generative AI applications and LLMs against various threats including prompt injection and data poisoning.
A threat intelligence aggregation service that consolidates and summarizes security updates from multiple sources to provide comprehensive cybersecurity situational awareness.
Fabric Platform is a cybersecurity reporting solution that automates and standardizes report generation, offering a private-cloud platform, open-source tools, and community-supported templates.
A weekly newsletter providing cybersecurity leadership insights, industry updates, and strategic guidance for security professionals advancing to management positions.