MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise
T1137.002
enhancement

Office Test

Parent: T1137

Description

Adversaries may abuse the Microsoft Office "Office Test" Registry key to obtain persistence on a compromised system. An Office Test Registry location exists that allows a user to specify an arbitrary DLL that will be executed every time an Office application is started. This Registry key is thought to be used by Microsoft to load DLLs for testing and debugging purposes while developing Office applications. This Registry key is not created by default during an Office installation.(Citation: Hexacorn Office Test)(Citation: Palo Alto Office Test Sofacy) There exist user and global Registry keys for the Office Test feature, such as: * <code>HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office test\Special\Perf</code> * <code>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office test\Special\Perf</code> Adversaries may add this Registry key and specify a malicious DLL that will be executed whenever an Office application, such as Word or Excel, is started.

Mapped SPARTA techniques

No techniques mapped to this control.

Cross-framework references

Relationships published by the source frameworks themselves, reproduced here with attribution. They are not SafeMode Space mappings and carry no confidence rating of ours.

Countered by 3 in MITRE D3FEND (Defensive Techniques)

Cite as SafeMode Space, mitre-attack-enterprise T1137.002.

Built 2026-07-25 from 216 techniques, 334 regulation articles, 125 ENISA controls, 2,610 framework controls, and 90 countermeasures.