How Can I Detect Win32 Process Creation/Termination Without a Kernel Driver?

Detecting Win32 Process Creation/Termination Without a Kernel Driver

While implementing a kernel-mode driver using APIs like PsSetCreateProcessNotifyRoutine offers a powerful mechanism for monitoring process activity, it is also possible to achieve this functionality using Win32 API functions in C without resorting to driver development.

Win32 API Functions

The Win32 API offers two primary approaches for detecting Win32 process creation and termination without a kernel driver:

1. Thread Creation and Termination Notifications: By creating a thread for the target process and synchronizing with events triggered on process creation or termination, it is possible to receive notifications.
2. RegisterWaitForSingleObject: This API allows registration of a callback function that will execute when a specified process handle is invalidated, signaling its termination.

Example Code Using RegisterWaitForSingleObject:

VOID CALLBACK WaitOrTimerCallback(
    _In_  PVOID lpParameter,
    _In_  BOOLEAN TimerOrWaitFired
    )
{
    MessageBox(0, L"The process has exited.", L"INFO", MB_OK);
    return;
}

DWORD dwProcessID = 1234;
HANDLE hProcHandle = OpenProcess(PROCESS_ALL_ACCESS, FALSE, dwProcessID);

HANDLE hNewHandle;
RegisterWaitForSingleObject(&hNewHandle, hProcHandle , WaitOrTimerCallback, NULL, INFINITE, WT_EXECUTEONLYONCE);

In this example, the WaitOrTimerCallback will be called when the target process terminates.

Additional Considerations

Some additional considerations when implementing process monitoring without a kernel driver include:

• Performance trade-offs compared to kernel-mode drivers.
• Limited visibility into other processes' activities.
• Potential limitations on the number of processes that can be monitored simultaneously.

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