regedit.exe

by Microsoft
System Utilitymedium risk

Sources: 300M+ executions observed in the wild.

Summary

Windows Registry Editor - GUI tool for viewing and modifying the Windows registry.

regedit.exe is the 1003rd most commonly executed Windows program in EchoTrail's dataset, observed 2,052 times across enterprise environments. It typically runs from C:\Windows and it is most often launched by bomgar-scc.exe.

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1003rd
most commonly executed Windows program
2,052
observed endpoint executions

Behavior

Top Paths

  • C:\Windows75.58%
  • C:\Windows\SysWOW6424.42%

Top Hashes (SHA256)

  • 33b0ed8a05fda2ba39e8aaa86b38cd289f412c7c1b04519016ba9a60a8ba0d6140%
  • d5de45decfd0fa08ac12f5725dfc7e5af1e3ed0325559101990fdcf02c43944116.01%
  • 476bb8e2150e6878a44688bd33b0897de077271a7e2d6f28f20c9a4bb74860e37.08%
  • 254b18a8cc6589af666ee17ce4e76c67350aecf578206cc7678745ed47a32d635.39%
  • 432412a22725c3737ef71e972ffbde90f71fe23bdc124edb8038ed6232f769954.54%
  • dce18e2279073ba64a6f35d17120fdca9a4902faef0c99cd96a5d673209e132f3.99%
  • 5ed3039b9675075ad5696305b511dceac690a9305e73b8afb49a0ff3187ed1d23.44%
  • d67043429a29b21307e1655db2512dc36280fffb26feeb3cf618e604c655b7ea3.34%
  • 8eca20b56293ad31401a5ffb5b70ce4a3412c16f5093b441cc7b209efcb4c95f2.69%
  • 7acc4a0b686d829d4d4c8afbf9e38e562be5a6f708a1c2273358aa7e41e1cb972.39%

Process Ancestry

Top Grandparents

Top Parents

Security Analysis

What does regedit.exe normally do?

Used by administrators to inspect and modify registry settings. Can import/export .reg files.

When is regedit.exe suspicious?

Exporting SAM, SECURITY, or SYSTEM hives. Importing .reg files from temp directories. Running from scripts or automated tools.

How do attackers abuse regedit.exe?

Attackers use "regedit /e" to export registry hives containing credentials or security settings. Registry modifications are central to many persistence techniques (Run keys, services, COM hijacking). Can import malicious .reg files for persistence.

Detection guidance

Monitor for regedit export operations targeting sensitive hives. Alert on regedit invocations with /s (silent import) flag from scripts.

False positive notes

IT administrators regularly use regedit for troubleshooting and configuration.

MITRE ATT&CK techniques

Related Processes

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