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Microsoft PowerToys is a collection of utilities that supercharge productivity and customization on Windows

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[Security][Hosts] Remove open method lookup and hardcode the notepad to open host editor (#46194)

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fix/what does it change/how was it tested (even manually, if necessary)?
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## Summary of the Pull Request
**This is a security issue fix**

In Hosts Editor module, we support to open the hosts file through user's
default editor.
The way to find the editor is that we will read a registry key and use
the value as a parameter to call Process.Start.

In most case, it works well. But Hosts editor module will launch as
admin permission. But the registry value can be modified in user 's
permission (without UAC request).

So, the malware may change the registry value and if user click the open
button. May call the dangerous command which written in registry.


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## PR Checklist

- [x] Closes: #46195
<!-- - [ ] Closes: #yyy (add separate lines for additional resolved
issues) -->
- [ ] **Communication:** I've discussed this with core contributors
already. If the work hasn't been agreed, this work might be rejected
- [ ] **Tests:** Added/updated and all pass
- [ ] **Localization:** All end-user-facing strings can be localized
- [ ] **Dev docs:** Added/updated
- [ ] **New binaries:** Added on the required places
- [ ] [JSON for
signing](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/.pipelines/ESRPSigning_core.json)
for new binaries
- [ ] [WXS for
installer](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/installer/PowerToysSetup/Product.wxs)
for new binaries and localization folder
- [ ] [YML for CI
pipeline](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/.pipelines/ci/templates/build-powertoys-steps.yml)
for new test projects
- [ ] [YML for signed
pipeline](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/.pipelines/release.yml)
- [ ] **Documentation updated:** If checked, please file a pull request
on [our docs
repo](https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/windows-uwp/tree/docs/hub/powertoys)
and link it here: #xxx

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or any additional comments/features here -->
## Detailed Description of the Pull Request / Additional comments

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## Validation Steps Performed

---------

Co-authored-by: Yu Leng (from Dev Box) <yuleng@microsoft.com>
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Co-authored-by: Copilot Autofix powered by AI <175728472+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
M
moooyo committed
549b32e273a5fd715fc357a1695f4870271de021
Parent: 0ccf598
Committed by GitHub <noreply@github.com> on 3/18/2026, 5:35:45 AM