Boot or Logon Autostart Execution: Print Processors

Adversaries may abuse print processors to run malicious DLLs during system boot for persistence and/or privilege escalation. Print processors are DLLs that are loaded by the print spooler service, spoolsv.exe, during boot.

Adversaries may abuse the print spooler service by adding print processors that load malicious DLLs at startup. A print processor can be installed through the AddPrintProcessor API call with an account that has SeLoadDriverPrivilege enabled. Alternatively, a print processor can be registered to the print spooler service by adding the HKLM\SYSTEM\[CurrentControlSet or ControlSet001]\Control\Print\Environments\[Windows architecture: e.g., Windows x64]\Print Processors\[user defined]\Driver Registry key that points to the DLL. For the print processor to be correctly installed, it must be located in the system print-processor directory that can be found with the GetPrintProcessorDirectory API call.^[1] After the print processors are installed, the print spooler service, which starts during boot, must be restarted in order for them to run.^[2] The print spooler service runs under SYSTEM level permissions, therefore print processors installed by an adversary may run under elevated privileges.