Office Application Startup: Outlook Forms
- ID
- T1137.003
- Tactics
- TA0003 Persistence
- Sub-technique of
- T1137 Office Application Startup
- Platforms
- Windows, Office Suite
- Data sources
- Process Creation, Module Load, Application Log Content, Command Execution
- Source
- attack.mitre.org
- MITRE last modified
- 25 Oct 2025
Adversaries may abuse Microsoft Outlook forms to obtain persistence on a compromised system. Outlook forms are used as templates for presentation and functionality in Outlook messages. Custom Outlook forms can be created that will execute code when a specifically crafted email is sent by an adversary utilizing the same custom Outlook form.[2]
Once malicious forms have been added to the user’s mailbox, they will be loaded when Outlook is started. Malicious forms will execute when an adversary sends a specifically crafted email to the user.[2]
Detection
- DET0029 Detect Persistence via Outlook Custom Forms Triggered by Malicious Email
Data components: Process Creation, Module Load, Application Log Content, Command Execution
Mitigations (2)
- M1040 Behavior Prevention on Endpoint
On Windows 10, enable Attack Surface Reduction (ASR) rules to prevent Office applications from creating child processes and from writing potentially malicious executable content to disk. [1]
- M1051 Update Software
For the Outlook methods, blocking macros may be ineffective as the Visual Basic engine used for these features is separate from the macro scripting engine.[2] Microsoft has released patches to try to address each issue. Ensure KB3191938 which blocks Outlook Visual Basic and displays a malicious code warning, KB4011091 which disables custom forms by default, and KB4011162 which removes the legacy Home Page feature, are applied to systems.[3]
Software (1)
References
- win10_asr
- SensePost Outlook Forms
- SensePost Outlook Home Page