MSCOMM32.OCX returns error 80040112

Yesterday I wrote about troubleshooting an application that used Com Port redirection in Citrix.

During the troubleshoot I noticed that the application used an ActiveX component, MSCOMM32.OCX, for serial communication.

I wanted to quickly test if the component was correctly registered so I searched the registry from HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT for mscomm32.ocx.

This confirmed that the component was registered:

My next check was to confirm if the control was actually working with a VB Script. For that I needed the ProgID from the same registry key:

The VBS code is then simply:

Set objMSComm = CreateObject("MSCommLib.MSComm")

Executing the script failed with error 80040112. I looked up this error code and it stands for CLASS_E_NOTLICENSED.

A google search lead me to this kb article which explains that it’s a license issue that only occurs when you create the control at run-time.

At this point I wasn’t sure if my problem was related to

I decided to open MSCOMM32.OCX in Ida Pro to see where this error comes from. I searched in the Strings Tab for the word Licenses which brought up this part of the code:

So a registry key under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Licenses is checked. I opened sub_21C118D3 and set a breakpoint on RegQueryValueA. The debugger shows us the contents of lpString and lpString2 when we hover the mouse over:

and lpString2:

So by creating the key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Licenses\4250E830-6AC2-11cf-8ADB-00AA00C00905 and set it’s default value to kjljvjjjoquqmjjjvpqqkqmqykypoqjquoun we will pass the license check.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Licenses\4250E830-6AC2-11cf-8ADB-00AA00C00905]
@="kjljvjjjoquqmjjjvpqqkqmqykypoqjquoun"

After creating the registry key, the vbs script worked (it didn’t make the application work though but more about that in yesterday’s post).