Application Execution Artifacts

As technology continues to evolve and expand, the digital world is becoming increasingly complex and interconnected. Nowadays, a great deal of business and personal interaction happens online. Cloud computing and remote work have given rise to a new way of doing business, and many companies now rely on software applications to keep their operations running. Unfortunately, these applications can leave behind artifacts of interest to hackers, cybercriminals, and other malicious actors. To ensure the safety of their data and information, companies should invest in robust security protocols and be vigilant about monitoring their networks for suspicious activity. Additionally, they should make sure their software is updated regularly and that any artifacts that are left behind are properly secured and encrypted. By taking these measures, businesses can better protect their data and ensure the safety of their digital networks.

Application execution artifacts...

Technical requirements

Windows registry analysis requires certain technical requirements to ensure that the process is executed efficiently and effectively. The following are the technical requirements that we have for this chapter:

• Registry Explorer: https://ericzimmerman.github.io/#!index.md
• AppCompactCacheParser.exe: https://ericzimmerman.github.io/#!index.md
• PECmd.exe: https://github.com/EricZimmerman/PECmd
• WinPrefetchView: https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/win_prefetch_view.html

Windows evidence of execution artifacts

Evidence of execution refers to the digital artifacts left behind on a system as a result of a program being run. This evidence can include Prefetch files, Shimcache entries, event logs, and link files, among others.

The identification of evidence of execution is important to forensic analysts because it can provide valuable insight into the activities that took place on a system. By analyzing this evidence, investigators can determine which programs were run, when they were run, and how often they were run. This information can be used to reconstruct a timeline of events and identify any malicious activity that may have occurred on the system.

Furthermore, evidence of execution can help forensic analysts identify malware and other types of malicious software that may have been used to compromise a system. Malware often leaves behind distinct patterns of execution, which can be identified by analyzing evidence of program execution. This...

Looking at the NTUSER.DAT, Amcache, and SYSTEM hives

When investigating a Windows system for potential cyber-attacks, one of the most important pieces of information that a forensic examiner can gather is evidence of execution. As mentioned earlier, evidence of execution refers to artifacts left behind by programs that have been run on a system and can provide valuable insights into the activities that occurred on the system. Understanding how to analyze and interpret these artifacts is essential to conducting effective Windows forensics investigations.

Evidence of execution can take many different forms, including file metadata, registry entries, and log files.

The NTUSER.DAT file is another important artifact to consider when analyzing evidence of execution. The NTUSER.DAT file is a registry hive that contains configuration settings for the user account currently logged on to a Windows system. It contains information about the programs that have been run on the system, including...

Windows Prefetch

Windows Prefetch is a built-in performance optimization feature introduced in Windows XP that helps to reduce the startup time of frequently used applications by caching executable files and libraries into a preallocated space on the hard drive. The Prefetch feature is automatically enabled on modern versions of Windows, including Windows 7, 8, 8.1, and 10, and it’s managed by the Task Scheduler service.

In addition to its primary function of speeding up the launch of applications, the Windows Prefetch feature also generates forensic artifacts, which can be useful in investigations. These artifacts are stored in the %SystemRoot%\Prefetch directory and have the .pf file extension.

Every time an application is launched, Windows Prefetch creates a new Prefetch file, which contains information about the application’s execution. This information includes the application’s name, its full path, its size, its last execution time, and a list of libraries...

Application execution artifact exercises

In this part, we will apply what we have learned so far. Try to work on the following questions:

1. Using FTK Imager, export Prefetch from your local machine.
2. Identify whether CMD.exe executed on your machine by using Amcache.hve.
3. Validate how many times outlook.exe was run on your machine by using PECmd.exe.
4. Investigate the loaded files referenced for Calc.exe on your machine.

Summary

In this chapter, we learned about various artifacts that provide evidence of execution in Windows systems. We discussed NTUSER.DAT, which is a registry hive containing information about user activity, including the execution of programs and the use of various applications. We also examined the UserAssist key, which provides information about program execution, and the BAM service, which monitors the activity of background applications. Finally, we explored Shimcache, which contains metadata about executed files.

Each of these artifacts provides valuable evidence of program execution on a Windows system, and forensic analysts can use this evidence to reconstruct a timeline of activity and identify potentially malicious behavior. By analyzing these artifacts, analysts can determine what programs were executed, when they were executed, and by whom. This information can be used to investigate incidents, identify attackers, and support legal proceedings. Forensic analysts need...