How to Recognize that an Application Intends to Execute \ Run a File? - windows

Question

I need to recognize and fire an event when a file is going to be executed or run by an application. I know I can do it by hooking windows procedures, but I don't know what procedure or event of windows fires.
For example, when an autorun file going to execute, my application should recognize it, Like an antivirus application.
I'm not sure that hooking is useful for my purpose, if solution isn't hooking, please give me a true solution.

Answer 1

try using the PsSetCreateProcessNotifyRoutine, this function adds a driver-supplied callback routine to, or removes it from, a list of routines to be called whenever a process is created or deleted.
you can find a very nice sample int this link written in c++
Detecting Windows NT/2K process execution
UPDATE
Another option is use the WMI events, check the Win32_Process class, the ExecNotificationQuery method and the SWbemEventSource.NextEvent function.
Check this sample tested in delphi 7 and Windows 7, you must run this application from outside of the Delphi IDE or disable the exception notification for the EOleException exception (check this link), to avoid the EOleException wich is intercepted by the IDE.
program GetWMI_InstanceCreationEvent;
{$APPTYPE CONSOLE}
uses
SysUtils
,Windows
,ComObj
,ActiveX
,Variants;
Function KeyPressed:boolean; //detect if an key is pressed
var
NumEvents : DWORD;
ir : _INPUT_RECORD;
bufcount : DWORD;
StdIn : THandle;
begin
Result:=false;
StdIn := GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE);
NumEvents:=0;
GetNumberOfConsoleInputEvents(StdIn,NumEvents);
if NumEvents<> 0 then
begin
PeekConsoleInput(StdIn,ir,1,bufcount);
if bufcount <> 0 then
begin
if ir.EventType = KEY_EVENT then
begin
if ir.Event.KeyEvent.bKeyDown then
result:=true
else
FlushConsoleInputBuffer(StdIn);
end
else
FlushConsoleInputBuffer(StdIn);
end;
end;
end;
function VarStrNUll(VarStr:OleVariant):string;//dummy function to handle null variants
begin
Result:='';
if not VarIsNull(VarStr) then
Result:=VarToStr(VarStr);
end;
function GetWMIObject(const objectName: String): IDispatch; //create a wmi object instance
var
chEaten: Integer;
BindCtx: IBindCtx;
Moniker: IMoniker;
begin
OleCheck(CreateBindCtx(0, bindCtx));
OleCheck(MkParseDisplayName(BindCtx, StringToOleStr(objectName), chEaten, Moniker));
OleCheck(Moniker.BindToObject(BindCtx, nil, IDispatch, Result));
end;
Procedure GetWin32_InstanceCreationEvent;
var
objWMIService : OLEVariant;
colMonitoredProcesses : OLEVariant;
objLatestProcess : OLEVariant;
begin
objWMIService := GetWMIObject('winmgmts:\\localhost\root\cimv2');
colMonitoredProcesses := objWMIService.ExecNotificationQuery('Select * From __InstanceCreationEvent Within 1 Where TargetInstance ISA ''Win32_Process'''); //Get the event listener
while not KeyPressed do
begin
try
objLatestProcess := colMonitoredProcesses.NextEvent(100);//set the max time to wait (ms)
except
on E:EOleException do
if EOleException(E).ErrorCode=HRESULT($80043001) then //Check for the timeout error wbemErrTimedOut 0x80043001
objLatestProcess:=Null
else
raise;
end;
if not VarIsNull(objLatestProcess) then
begin
Writeln('Process Started '+VarStrNUll(objLatestProcess.TargetInstance.Name));
Writeln('CommandLine '+VarStrNUll(objLatestProcess.TargetInstance.CommandLine));
Writeln('PID '+VarStrNUll(objLatestProcess.TargetInstance.ProcessID));
end;
end;
end;
begin
try
CoInitialize(nil);
try
Writeln('Press Any key to exit');
GetWin32_InstanceCreationEvent;
finally
CoUninitialize;
end;
except
on E:Exception do
Begin
Writeln(E.Classname, ': ', E.Message);
Readln;
End;
end;
end.