The Windows Registry Adventure #2: A brief history of the feature

Posted by Mateusz Jurczyk, Google Project Zero

Before diving into the low-level security aspects of the registry, it is important to understand its role in the operating system and a bit of history behind it. In essence, the registry is a hierarchical database made of named "keys" and "values", used by Windows and applications to store a variety of settings and configuration data. It is represented by a tree structure, in which keys may have one or more sub-keys, and …

database feature google google project zero history important keys low operating system project project zero registry role security system understand windows