Rapid7

module

Windows Registry Active Setup Persistence

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Disclosed
Dec 1, 2015
Created
Feb 20, 2026

Description

This module will register a payload to run via the Active Setup mechanism in Windows.
Active Setup is a Windows feature that runs once per user at login.
It triggers in a user context, losing privileges from admin to user.

Active Setup will open a popup box with "Personalized Settings" and the text
"Setting up personalized settings for: ". However
this won't occur until the login screen has exited (but before the desktop
is loaded), and our execution is extremely fast so likely the user will not
see it.

Author

h00die

Platform

Windows

Architectures

x64, x86, aarch64

References

Module Options

To display the available options, load the module within the Metasploit console and run the commands 'show options' or 'show advanced':


    msf > use exploit/windows/persistence/registry_active_setup
    msf exploit(registry_active_setup) > show targets
        ...targets...
    msf exploit(registry_active_setup) > set TARGET < target-id >
    msf exploit(registry_active_setup) > show options
        ...show and set options...
    msf exploit(registry_active_setup) > exploit
Title
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