What Is The 'COM Surrogate' Process?

PC users, while monitoring the currently active processes on their computers, will almost always see an enigmatic process named COM Surrogate listed there. The peculiar name and lack of any meaningful description could lead many to suspect that the process might be threatening. Rest assured, though, that there is a legitimate windows process called COM Surrogate and it plays an essential role in the smooth running of numerous software extensions. More specifically, these are called COM Objects and serve a lot of varied functions. The COM Surrogate process is associated with the 'dllhost.exe' application that can be found in the \Windows\System32 folder.

However, a common technique employed by numerous serious malware threats is to disguise themselves as legitimate system processes, and COM Surrogate is not an exception. To spot such impostors users will need to inspect the details of the COM Surrogate process a bit more carefully. First, check that is not running a different application or a variation of the legitimate one such as 'dllhost.com' or 'dllhost.dll.' See the location of the application and consider anything different the \Windows\System32 to be an indicator of a potentially serious malware threat. Furthermore, the COM Surrogate process should take minimal system resources during its operation. If, however, the process is at the top of the list in either CPU or GPU resources, it could signal that is an imposter.

Upon noticing any discrepancies run a thorough scan of the system with a professional anti-malware solution immediately. Most threats that could target this process would either be Trojans or Ransomware. Trojans can perform a wide set of threatening activities on the system ranging from collecting sensitive data, to allowing unauthorized remote access or fetching and executing additional threats. Ransomware, on the other hand, initiates an encryption process that will lock the files on the compromised device. Users will no longer be able to access their private or work files. The cybercriminals then extort the victim for money in exchange for the decryption key and tool that could restore the data.

What Is The 'COM Surrogate' Process? Video

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