{
	"id": "35d39266-ac41-42bb-adc1-ef9a873baec6",
	"created_at": "2026-04-06T00:09:57.975255Z",
	"updated_at": "2026-04-10T13:12:12.645712Z",
	"deleted_at": null,
	"sha1_hash": "391915865faeb86ac64974ce639e9b7aac45a110",
	"title": "Beyond good ol’ Run key, Part 24",
	"llm_title": "",
	"authors": "",
	"file_creation_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z",
	"file_modification_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z",
	"file_size": 73295,
	"plain_text": "Beyond good ol’ Run key, Part 24\r\nPublished: 2015-01-13 · Archived: 2026-04-05 15:55:35 UTC\r\nAbility to load a DLL of your choice anytime someone is connecting to the internet is something that definitely\r\ndeserves some attention. This is why I will describe here yet another obscure mechanism that can be abused for\r\nmalicious purposes. Courtesy of Winsock 2 library (ws2_32.dll).\r\nWhen Winsock library connects to the internet it ‘talks’ to various service providers and probes them for\r\nconnectivity services. It’s actually pretty complex and I won’t pretend that I fully understand what’s going on\r\nthere yet there is one thing which this library does that I do understand 🙂\r\nAt some stage it attempts to load a DLL as specified by the following Registry key:\r\nHKLM\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\WinSock2\\Parameters\\AutodialDLL\r\nThis key is quite obscure and Microsoft only describes it in a context of a very old vulnerability MS06-041.\r\nTurns out that the AutodialDLL entry points to a DLL that WinSock will load anytime it connects to the internet.\r\nThe DLL needs to export 3 functions:\r\nWSAttemptAutodialAddr\r\nWSAttemptAutodialName\r\nWSNoteSuccessfulHostentLookup\r\nThe result of loading the following registry key:\r\nWindows Registry Editor Version 5.00\r\n[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\WinSock2\\Parameters] \"AutodialDLL\"=\"c:\\\\temp\\\\f\r\nand dropping the file\r\nc:\\temp\\foo.dll\r\n(the DLL exports the aforementioned APIs) can be seen below:\r\nhttps://www.hexacorn.com/blog/2015/01/13/beyond-good-ol-run-key-part-24/\r\nPage 1 of 2\n\nThe screenshot was taken from a Windows XP system – I simply opened and closed Internet Explorer.\r\nOf course, it works on Windows 10 too – just access to HKLM is slightly more difficult 🙂\r\nSource: https://www.hexacorn.com/blog/2015/01/13/beyond-good-ol-run-key-part-24/\r\nhttps://www.hexacorn.com/blog/2015/01/13/beyond-good-ol-run-key-part-24/\r\nPage 2 of 2",
	"extraction_quality": 1,
	"language": "EN",
	"sources": [
		"MITRE"
	],
	"origins": [
		"web"
	],
	"references": [
		"https://www.hexacorn.com/blog/2015/01/13/beyond-good-ol-run-key-part-24/"
	],
	"report_names": [
		"beyond-good-ol-run-key-part-24"
	],
	"threat_actors": [],
	"ts_created_at": 1775434197,
	"ts_updated_at": 1775826732,
	"ts_creation_date": 0,
	"ts_modification_date": 0,
	"files": {
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		"text": "https://archive.orkl.eu/391915865faeb86ac64974ce639e9b7aac45a110.txt",
		"img": "https://archive.orkl.eu/391915865faeb86ac64974ce639e9b7aac45a110.jpg"
	}
}