An entry in my system env variables 'IGCCSVC_DB' has a base 64 string as a value, any idea what its purpose might be?

Question

On Windows 11, what is the purpose of IGGCCSVC_DB in my environment variables?
I'm assuming this is the Intel Graphics Command Center Service (IGGCCSVC). DB means database. The IGGCCSVC_DB string value is:

AQAAANCMnd8BFdERjHoAwE/Cl+sBAAAAMFXZQlWPY0WxL81UtJ1/uwQAAAACAAAAAAAQZgAAAAEAACAAAABtoPdqg9gGfWd2/tKdEnyfzPX9ovj+7Y0xHB24RBoAJAAAAAAOgAAAAAIAACAAAADNpA4z1ccyeYOD2OMAJKG/IToPF3KB7m8Y0OVlWDyVnGAAAADLz1jaI3utemoNVb5+jQEot25uylIK/KkMjcKyKEyb2X/6vHe9ci0KKGxVpHXMxxMRMmhpflaRCA7+J3C+SLHLm3sdeWn1xRDMIlgz/cJioZQzUziG9LCSUhAcRoVFoEJAAAAAXkAnOBW3BOMaksKqIqrfckD17XPhfP7s9fBj/PwQ5U/BkhDqA21B0Y59SpngT9DP1neGU7HjLOEJhsF1q/THCQ==

The only thing I found online was this bleeping computer thread https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/789314/help-needed-odd-in-speccy-igccsvc-db/ where it was treated as an issue and fixed by disabling the intel graphics command center service, however why its an issue isn't stated, and I'm just curious if its a normal entry for the graphics command center to make or if it is something I should try to correct?

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 27 '23 at 17:43

I'm not an Intel developer, but I have some ideas. Since it's holding binary data, it has to be encoded to reliably store it in an environment variable, thus the base64. It might actually be the entire configuration database for the software (or a digest of key settings), although an environment variable is an interesting place to put it. It might be there for logging (especially for crash analysis), or perhaps it's a way for the control center to propagate settings to subprocesses of a game, since they will inherit the parent process's environment.

There are a couple of things to note. First, yours is a good bit longer than the sample you found online, but if you decode and hexdump them, they do have some similarities. I suspect that you might have more settings or customizations in Intel Graphics Command Center Service than the other person does. It would be interesting to see if the value changes on your computer or if different processes have different values. It would also be interesting to see if the Intel service is able to modify the variable without having to start a new process. The format doesn't appear to be anything familiar, so it's probably something proprietery.

So in the long run, I suspect this is either a method of debug logging or even a way for the running software to be aware of which optimizations Intel is making, so that developers can integrate with it better.

I did find some developer tidbits regarding IGCC which give some hints on the underlying process:

Q. IGCC cannot be launched properly after the 2nd account sign in

A. This is expected behavior :

When IGCC loads from the 1st user there a Win32 app (an app that loads in background which talks to the OS and Driver)

As part of this loading, there are OS system resources like “OS Network System pipe”, etc that gets allocated.

When the 2nd user has logged in (1st user without logging out)

When 2nd instance of IGCC starts, the Win32 app’s resources conflicts with the 1st user’s IGCC instance. Because these resources are OS resources they are common across all users.

Hence the 2nd instance id not loading.

This would be consistent with the idea of passing information around between user and system space using environment variables, services, and helper processes.

Data Dumps

Yours:

$ echo "AQAAANCMnd8BFdERjHoAwE/Cl+sBAAAAMFXZQlWPY0WxL81UtJ1/uwQAAAACAAAAAAAQZgAAAAEAACAAAABtoPdqg9gGfWd2/tKdEnyfzPX9ovj+7Y0xHB24RBoAJAAAAAAOgAAAAAIAACAAAADNpA4z1ccyeYOD2OMAJKG/IToPF3KB7m8Y0OVlWDyVnGAAAADLz1jaI3utemoNVb5+jQEot25uylIK/KkMjcKyKEyb2X/6vHe9ci0KKGxVpHXMxxMRMmhpflaRCA7+J3C+SLHLm3sdeWn1xRDMIlgz/cJioZQzUziG9LCSUhAcRoVFoEJAAAAAXkAnOBW3BOMaksKqIqrfckD17XPhfP7s9fBj/PwQ5U/BkhDqA21B0Y59SpngT9DP1neGU7HjLOEJhsF1q/THCQ==" | base64 -d | hexdump -C
00000000  01 00 00 00 d0 8c 9d df  01 15 d1 11 8c 7a 00 c0  |.............z..|
00000010  4f c2 97 eb 01 00 00 00  30 55 d9 42 55 8f 63 45  |O.......0U.BU.cE|
00000020  b1 2f cd 54 b4 9d 7f bb  04 00 00 00 02 00 00 00  |./.T............|
00000030  00 00 10 66 00 00 00 01  00 00 20 00 00 00 6d a0  |...f...... ...m.|
00000040  f7 6a 83 d8 06 7d 67 76  fe d2 9d 12 7c 9f cc f5  |.j...}gv....|...|
00000050  fd a2 f8 fe ed 8d 31 1c  1d b8 44 1a 00 24 00 00  |......1...D..$..|
00000060  00 00 0e 80 00 00 00 02  00 00 20 00 00 00 cd a4  |.......... .....|
00000070  0e 33 d5 c7 32 79 83 83  d8 e3 00 24 a1 bf 21 3a  |.3..2y.....$..!:|
00000080  0f 17 72 81 ee 6f 18 d0  e5 65 58 3c 95 9c 60 00  |..r..o...eX<..`.|
00000090  00 00 cb cf 58 da 23 7b  ad 7a 6a 0d 55 be 7e 8d  |....X.#{.zj.U.~.|
000000a0  01 28 b7 6e 6e ca 52 0a  fc a9 0c 8d c2 b2 28 4c  |.(.nn.R.......(L|
000000b0  9b d9 7f fa bc 77 bd 72  2d 0a 28 6c 55 a4 75 cc  |.....w.r-.(lU.u.|
000000c0  c7 13 11 32 68 69 7e 56  91 08 0e fe 27 70 be 48  |...2hi~V....'p.H|
000000d0  b1 cb 9b 7b 1d 79 69 f5  c5 10 cc 22 58 33 fd c2  |...{.yi...."X3..|
000000e0  62 a1 94 33 53 38 86 f4  b0 92 52 10 1c 46 85 45  |b..3S8....R..F.E|
000000f0  a0 42 40 00 00 00 5e 40  27 38 15 b7 04 e3 1a 92  |.B@...^@'8......|
00000100  c2 aa 22 aa df 72 40 f5  ed 73 e1 7c fe ec f5 f0  |.."..r@..s.|....|
00000110  63 fc fc 10 e5 4f c1 92  10 ea 03 6d 41 d1 8e 7d  |c....O.....mA..}|
00000120  4a 99 e0 4f d0 cf d6 77  86 53 b1 e3 2c e1 09 86  |J..O...w.S..,...|
00000130  c1 75 ab f4 c7 09                                 |.u....|
00000136

Theirs:

$ echo "AwE/ClsBAAAAwP5ZA9hBFkKOy7nTXnxqVQQAAAACAAAAAAAQZgAAAAEAACAAAABBtpe7JadLqA83M8hiJL7RrxNqR3hQVq+MCkDZmQ2VzAAAAAAOgAAAAAIAACAAAAAt/HnAxD0V+4XEjC3vak+8hjhqLmJrNCmSIwKeq4QiaGAAAAAIY9ouaYjViGw5HhiekXxjYsTl097AxsZUgJgrgm==" | base64 -d | hexdump -C
00000000  03 01 3f 0a 5b 01 00 00  00 c0 fe 59 03 d8 41 16  |..?.[......Y..A.|
00000010  42 8e cb b9 d3 5e 7c 6a  55 04 00 00 00 02 00 00  |B....^|jU.......|
00000020  00 00 00 10 66 00 00 00  01 00 00 20 00 00 00 41  |....f...... ...A|
00000030  b6 97 bb 25 a7 4b a8 0f  37 33 c8 62 24 be d1 af  |...%.K..73.b$...|
00000040  13 6a 47 78 50 56 af 8c  0a 40 d9 99 0d 95 cc 00  |.jGxPV...@......|
00000050  00 00 00 0e 80 00 00 00  02 00 00 20 00 00 00 2d  |........... ...-|
00000060  fc 79 c0 c4 3d 15 fb 85  c4 8c 2d ef 6a 4f bc 86  |.y..=.....-.jO..|
00000070  38 6a 2e 62 6b 34 29 92  23 02 9e ab 84 22 68 60  |8j.bk4).#...."h`|
00000080  00 00 00 08 63 da 2e 69  88 d5 88 6c 39 1e 18 9e  |....c..i...l9...|
00000090  91 7c 63 62 c4 e5 d3 de  c0 c6 c6 54 80 98 2b 82  |.|cb.......T..+.|
000000a0

An entry in my system env variables 'IGCCSVC_DB' has a base 64 string as a value, any idea what its purpose might be?

1 Answers1