Vista Forensics
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Vista Forensics
• Disk and File System Changes
– GUID and MBR disks
– Directory Structure
– Reparse Points
– BitLocker Encryption
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Vista Forensics
• OS Artifacts
– Volume Shadow Copy
– Recycle Bin
– Event Logs
– Thumbnail Cache
– Shortcut (.lnk) files
– System Activity
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Vista Disk Changes
• MBR Disks
The first partition now starts at sector 2048,
compared with sector 63 for all previous
Windows OSs
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Vista Disk Changes
• GUID Partition Table (GPT) Disks
– Also available with XP (x64), Server 2003 and
all Vista and future Windows versions.
– MBR partition table points to sector 1.
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GUID Partition Table
Starting Sectors
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Ending Sectors
Vista Directory Structure
• Shown with “Dual
partition” setup to
enable BitLocker
encryption on a nonTPM computer
• C:\Documents and
Settings\ is now only a
reparse point linked to
c:\Users
• Many directory changes
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Reparse Points
• Directory
Junctions
• Symbolic
Directory
Links
• Symbolic
File Links
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Reparse Points
• Directory Junctions
– User can not access directory junction
folders…..they are just empty pointers
– Redirects legacy programs from folders like
C:\ Documents and Settings\ to C:\Users
– Uses the $C0 Reparse Point attribute in an
NTFS MFT record to store the “pointer”
information
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Reparse Points
• Symbolic Directory Links
“Vista processes symbolic links on the local system, even when they
reference a location on a remote server. Vista processes directory junctions
that reference a remote file server on the server itself” Mark Russinovich
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Reparse Points
• Symbolic File Links
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BitLocker Encryption
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Identification of BitLocker Encryption
• Previous versions of Windows (NT/2K/XP/2K3 ) do not
know what BitLocker is.
• You will not be able to use XP to disable or interact
• Vista must be used
to interact with
BitLocker
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Working with BitLocker Encryption
• Must use Vista (can use VM) to Interact with BitLocker
volumes.
• If BitLocker disk is attached to your Vista machine and
is locked, the volume is not accessible.
• If BitLocker functionality is not enabled in your Vista
machine or VM, then you must enable it before you can
unlock or turn off BitLocker encryption on “foreign”
BitLocker disks.
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Turning off BitLocker Encryption
• Click on the blue “Unlock Volume” link.
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Turning off BitLocker Encryption
• Provide recovery password from either USB drive or
manually enter it.
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Turning off BitLocker Encryption
• Recovery password file….look for them on USB drives.
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Turning off BitLocker Encryption
• After you either provide the correct password or USB
key, the disk will now be temporarily available.
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Turning off BitLocker Encryption
• BitLocker is now "unlocked" and you can access the
partition. You will note that the icon has changed from a
padlock to a key, but still says "On". This is a temporary
disabling process and BitLocker will be re-enabled upon
a reboot.
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Imaging BitLocker drives
• With BitLocker temporarily disabled, you can image in
Windows using any Windows-based imaging tool.
• If you wish to permanently turn of BitLocker to access
the drive outside of Vista, then click on the blue “Turn
Off BitLocker” link to start the decryption process.
– Note that this will change the drive as it is decrypting the data.
– This will take a long time so be prepared to wait.
• You can image the fully encrypted drive just like any
other drive with any other data on it….you just won’t be
able to decipher anything on it until you disable or turn
off BitLocker.
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Live BitLocker Encrypted Systems
If an admin user, you can:
• Turn off or disable BitLocker or
• Export a new copy of the recovery password text file.
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Live BitLocker Encrypted Systems
This disabling process is not like the prior “slave” drive
example. The prior process was a one-time disabling and
it reverts back to being enabled upon a reboot. On a live
Vista machine, it will be disabled (but not decrypted) every
time this system reboots, until you re-enable BitLocker .
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Booting a BitLocker System
•With TPM chip – startup PIN or startup key (USB)
• Without TPM chip – USB startup key
•Or hit “Enter” to manually enter a recovery password…
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Booting a BitLocker System
•Enter your recovery password from the correct text file.
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OS Artifact Changes and
Additions
•Volume Shadow Copy
•Recycle Bin
•Event Logs
•Thumbnail Cache
•Shortcut (.lnk) files
•System Activity
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Volume Shadow Copy
• a "point-in-time" snapshot
• introduced with XP and Server 2003, but is
greatly enhanced in Windows Vista
• snapshots will take up approximately 15%
of available drive space
• "snapshots" taken once a day, or
whenever an application makes a system
change that requires the creation of a
snapshot
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Volume Shadow Copy
• Control
Panel/System and
Maintenance/
System/System
Protection
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Volume Shadow Copy
• Previous Versions
– Exist for files and
folders
• Can open, copy out
or restore any
previous version
“snapshot”
• Each “snapshot” can
contain different
content, check all.
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Volume Shadow Copy
• Located in c:\System Volume Information
folder
• File structure unknown at this time
• Easiest way to get file out of restore points
is to use “Previous Versions” feature to
copy out files/folders stored within.
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Volume Shadow Copy
• Open desired “Previous Version”
• Use WinRAR or similar to package desired
evidence files to preserve dates/attributes
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Vista Recycle Bin
• now located at "C:\$Recycle.Bin" instead
of "C:\RECYCLER"
• no longer uses an "INFO2" file
• $I file - deleted date/time & original path
• $R file – original file
• $I and $R keep extension of original file.
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Vista Recycle Bin
• Don’t forget “Previous Versions” of the
Recycle Bin may exist.
• May find “deleted” files in the Recycle Bin
as well….remember those “flags” in the
MFT records you learned about?
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Vista Event Logs
• XP: Application, Security, System
• Vista: Application, Security, Setup,
System, Forwarded Events, Hardware
Events, Media Center, Internet Explorer,
Key Management Service, DFS
Replication, and many others.
• Now located in:
C:\Windows\System32\winevt\Logs
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Vista Event Logs
• Export/Save as .evtx, .xml, .txt or .csv
• Until adequate parsing tools are
developed, best method of analysis is to
export and load into your Vista forensic
machine for analysis.
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Thumbnail Cache
(formerly thumbs.db)
• XP thumbs.db files have been replaced by
“thumbcache_????.db” files in the folder:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer
• Can now be attributed to a specific user’s
viewing of files.
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Thumbnail Cache
• Populated when user selects the following views
in Explorer:
–
–
–
–
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Medium Icons
Large Icons
Extra Large Icons
Preview
Thumbnail Cache
• thumbcache_1024.db and
thumbcache_256.db contain jpeg files.
• thumbcache_96.db and
thumbcache_32.db contain bitmap files.
• thumbcache_idx.db file consists of index
entries for the graphics in the other
thumbcache files.
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Shortcut (.lnk) files
• Very much the same as in XP, except that
new additional shortcut properties exist
• Existing tools will parse out new .lnk files
but only up to the new properties
• New locations:
User specific \Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\
All Users \ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\
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System Activity
• Internet Explorer 7
– “Protected Mode” – runs process with “Low”
rights, even if logged on as Admin.
Cache: %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet
Files\Low\Content.IE5
Cookies:%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies\Low
History:
%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\History\Low\History.IE5
– Virtualization (file and registry writes):
%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary
Internet Files\Virtualized\
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System Activity
• Internet Explorer 7
– Standard “Privileged Mode”
Cache: \Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary
Internet Files\Content.IE5
Cookies:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies\
History:
\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\History\History.IE5\
• Other data locations:
•
•
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\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\UserData\
\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer\UserData\Low
System Activity
• Recent "Documents" folder
• \Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\W
indows\Recent
• RSS Feeds
• \Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Feed
s Cache\
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System Activity
• Media Player
• \Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Medi
a Player\
• Temp Files
• Low Privilege:
\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\Low\
• Regular Privilege:
\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\
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System Activity
• These are just a few examples of new
locations at which system and user activity
files are stored.
• The Windows Registry also contains new
hives, key locations and values ….
• There is not enough time in one lecture to cover
it all so this is just a start of some of the
significant items in Vista.
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Questions?
As usual, use the discussion board…
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