![]() Before that introduction, BHOs that did not make any visible changes to the browser window often went unnoticed for a long time. The add-on manager in IE that allows users to easily review and disable/enable extensions was introduced with IE 6 Service Pack 2. Knowing that BHOs can also monitor the traffic in the browser, you may not be surprised to learn that there have also been key-loggers and other spyware applications in the form of BHOs. As with other adware applications, the rewards for the user have diminished and the amount of advertisements has grown since then. Adware distributors soon found ways to sell the public toolbars that gave the user some extra functionality for the price of looking at some advertisements. Although there were and are many legitimate applications using BHOs, soon a host of Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs) followed in their wake. ![]() HistoryīHOs were first introduced with the release of IE4 near the end of 1997. In the Windows registry, the BHOs are registered by globally unique identifiers called CLSIDs under the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Browser Helper Objects. There the CLSIDs are sub-keys that enumerate the BHOs in use on that system. The unrestricted access that BHOs have by design in IEs Document Object Model make them a powerful tool in the hands of attackers. ![]() Their first use was to add toolbars to the browser windows.Īlthough these objects are usually dll files, we have also seen dat and exe files. Designed to enable COM objects to be written that will load with the browser (both IE and Windows Explorer), BHOs were a means to enhance the functionality of the browser. Browser Helper Objects (BHOs) are add-ons or plugins designed for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE).
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