Would it be a security risk if I moved PsTools to the windows system32 folder?

Question

Microsfot Sysinternals has a helper program called PsTools inside this PsTools suite are a bunch of .exe tools that I use regularly from a command line.

I was thinking about moving all these files to my system32 directory so they would be available on my prompt path. Is this a bad idea?

Surely there's another way to put something in the execution path in Windows. — forest, May 22 '18 at 00:41
Good point I guess. I was thinking that its already cluttered and filled with executables. — Gabriel Fair, May 22 '18 at 00:47
Even if it is, it's not the correct place for random executables, security issues aside. It's easier to maintain a system that doesn't deviate too far from the standard. — forest, May 22 '18 at 00:49
Not relevant to where they are stored, but having them at all will give an attacker some juicy built in tools to leverage. — TheJulyPlot, Sep 20 '18 at 14:38

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered May 23 '18 at 10:34

I use them from \Windows\ for easy quick deployment.

No problem whatsoever from a security perspective.

I try not to use the system directories, as things are hard to trace in there already, but directly in \Windows\ things are very clear and easy to follow from a "what exe files should be there" perspective.

Would it be a security risk if I moved PsTools to the windows system32 folder?

1 Answers1