LOLBAS Top 50 - LOLBAS Purpose

Question 1

What is the purpose of certutil.exe?

Answer 1

Certificate utility for downloading files and encoding/decoding data

Question 2

What is the purpose of cmd.exe?

Answer 2

Command prompt interpreter

Question 3

What is the purpose of powershell.exe?

Answer 3

Scripting language and command-line shell

Question 4

What is the purpose of mshta.exe?

Answer 4

Executes Microsoft HTML Applications

Question 5

What is the purpose of wmic.exe?

Answer 5

Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line

Question 6

What is the purpose of rundll32.exe?

Answer 6

Loads and runs 32-bit DLLs

Question 7

What is the purpose of regsvr32.exe?

Answer 7

Registers DLLs and ActiveX controls in the registry

Question 8

What is the purpose of bitsadmin.exe?

Answer 8

Manages Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) jobs

Question 9

What is the purpose of installutil.exe?

Answer 9

Utility to install and uninstall server resources by executing installer components

Question 10

What is the purpose of reg.exe?

Answer 10

Registry manipulation utility

Question 11

What is the purpose of schtasks.exe?

Answer 11

Schedules commands and programs to run periodically or at a specific time

Question 12

What is the purpose of mavinject.exe?

Answer 12

Injects code into the address space of another process

Question 13

What is the purpose of msbuild.exe?

Answer 13

Builds applications and code projects

Question 14

What is the purpose of wbadmin.exe?

Answer 14

Backup and recovery command-line tool

Question 15

What is the purpose of bginfo.exe?

Answer 15

Background information utility

Question 16

What is the purpose of cmstp.exe?

Answer 16

Microsoft Connection Manager Profile Installer

Question 17

What is the purpose of control.exe?

Answer 17

Opens Control Panel items

Question 18

What is the purpose of conhost.exe?

Answer 18

Console window host process

Question 19

What is the purpose of forfiles.exe?

Answer 19

Selects and executes a command on a file or set of files

Question 20

What is the purpose of makecab.exe?

Answer 20

Creates a cabinet (.CAB) file

Question 21

What is the purpose of cscript.exe?

Answer 21

Windows Script Host command-line version

Question 22

What is the purpose of wscript.exe?

Answer 22

Windows Script Host Windows-based version

Question 23

What is the purpose of expand.exe?

Answer 23

Expands one or more compressed files

Question 24

What is the purpose of hh.exe?

Answer 24

HTML Help executable

Question 25

What is the purpose of ftp.exe?

Answer 25

File Transfer Protocol utility

Question 26

What is the purpose of msiexec.exe?

Answer 26

Windows Installer command-line utility

Question 27

What is the purpose of netsh.exe?

Answer 27

Network services command-line scripting utility

Question 28

What is the purpose of dnscmd.exe?

Answer 28

DNS server management command

Question 29

What is the purpose of esentutl.exe?

Answer 29

Database utilities for the Extensible Storage Engine

Question 30

What is the purpose of findstr.exe?

Answer 30

Searches for strings in files

Question 31

What is the purpose of tar.exe?

Answer 31

Tape Archive utility for archiving files

Question 32

What is the purpose of fc.exe?

Answer 32

File compare utility

Question 33

What is the purpose of replace.exe?

Answer 33

Replaces files

Question 34

What is the purpose of xcopy.exe?

Answer 34

Copies files and directories, including subdirectories

Question 35

What is the purpose of robocopy.exe?

Answer 35

Robust file copy for Windows

Question 36

What is the purpose of attrib.exe?

Answer 36

Displays or changes file attributes

Question 37

What is the purpose of curl.exe?

Answer 37

Transfers data from or to a server using various protocols

Question 38

What is the purpose of scp.exe?

Answer 38

Secure copy (remote file copy program)

Question 39

What is the purpose of ssh.exe?

Answer 39

OpenSSH SSH client

Question 40

What is the purpose of wget.exe?

Answer 40

Retrieves files from the web

Question 41

What is the purpose of icacls.exe?

Answer 41

Displays or modifies discretionary access control lists (DACLs) on specified files

Question 42

What is the purpose of cacls.exe?

Answer 42

Displays or modifies access control lists (ACLs) of files

Question 43

What is the purpose of takeown.exe?

Answer 43

Allows an administrator to take ownership of a file

Question 44

What is the purpose of tasklist.exe?

Answer 44

Displays a list of currently running processes on a local or remote computer

Question 45

What is the purpose of taskkill.exe?

Answer 45

Terminates tasks by process id (PID) or image name

Question 46

What is the purpose of taskschd.msc?

Answer 46

Scheduled Task Manager

Question 47

What is the purpose of eventvwr.exe?

Answer 47

Event Viewer

Question 48

What is the purpose of compmgmt.msc?

Answer 48

Computer Management console