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Evidence of Network and Browser History

Posted Sep 11, 2022
By darkcybe
5 min read

Techniques that can be used to discover evidence in support of an assets physical location, network connectivity and web browser history post-breach. More useful in investigation relating to insider threat or more commonly during the COVID Pandemic, attacks originating from employees working away from the office.

Windows

Timezone

Identification of the systems timezone can grant information that could indicate the an assets physical locale.

WIN: XP+
SRV: 2003+

Location

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HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation

Interpretation and Investigative Notes

  • Internal logs and DTG stamps will be based on the control set saved in the registry key.
  • Other network sourced logs will need to be correlated for any time difference/skew.

Tools

Sources

Browser Cookies

Cookies give insight into which sites have been visited and the activities that occurred on the site.

WIN: XP+
SRV: 2003+

Location

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# INTERNET EXPLORER
# Versions 6-10
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies

# Version 11
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCookies

# MOZILLA FIREFOX
# WINDOWS XP
%USERPROFILE%\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles<RANDOM-TEXT>.default\cookies.sqlite

# WINDOWS 7+
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles<RANDOM-TEXT>.default\cookies.sqlite

# GOOGLE CHROME
# WINDOWS XP
%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\ApplicationData\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Local Storage

# WINDOWS 7+
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Local Storage

Interpretation and Investigative Notes

  • Google Analytics (GA) has developed an extremely sophisticated methodology for tracking site visits, user activity, and paid search. Since GA is largely free, it has a commanding share of the market, estimated at over 80% of sites using traffic analysis and over 50% of all sites.
    • _utma (Unique Visitors)
      • Domain Hash
      • Visitor ID
      • Cookie Creation Time
      • Time of 2nd most recent visit
      • Time of most recent visit
      • Number of visits
    • _utmb (Session Tracking)
      • Domain Hash
      • Page views in current session
      • Outbound link clicks
      • Time current session started
    • _utmz (Traffic Sources)
      • Domain Hash
      • last Update Time
      • Number of visits
      • Number of different types of visits
      • Source used to access site
      • Google AdWords campaign name
      • Access Method (organic, referral, cpc, email, direct)
      • Keyword used to find site (non-SSL only)

Tools

Sources

WLAN Event Log

Determine what wireless connections have been established, displays SSID.

WIN: 7+
SRV: Not Tested

Location

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Microsoft-Windows-WLAN-AutoConfig Operational.evtx

Interpretation and Investigative Notes

  • Event IDs
    • 11000: Wireless network association started
    • 8001: Successful connection to wireless network
    • 8002: Failed connection to wireless network
    • 8003: Disconnect from wireless network
    • 6100: Network diagnostics (System.evtx)

Tools

Sources

Browser Search Times

Records websites visited by date and time. Details are stored for each local user account. Records the number of times visited (frequency) and also tracks access of local system files. Includes the website history of search terms in search engines.

WIN: XP+
SRV: Not Tested

Location

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# INTERNET EXPLORER
# Versions 6-7
%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\History\History.IE5

# Versions 8-9
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\History\History.IE5

# Versions 10-11
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WebCache\WebCacheV*.dat

# MOZILLA FIREFOX
# WINDOWS XP
%USERPROFILE%\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles<RANDOM-TEXT>.default\places.sqlite

# WINDOWS 7/8/10
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles<RANDOM-TEXT>.default\places.sqlite

Interpretation and Investigative Notes

Tools

Sources

System Resource Usage Monitor (SRUM)

Records 30 to 60 days of historical system performance. Applications run, user account responsible for each, and application and bytes sent/received per application per hour.

WIN: 8+
SRV: Not Tested

Location

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SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\SRUM\Extensions

SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WlanSvc\Interfaces

C:\Windows\System32\SRU\

Interpretation and Investigative Notes

  • SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\SRUM\Extensions
    • Windows Network Data Usage Monitor
      • {973F5D5C-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}
    • Windows Network Connectivity Usage Monitor
      • {DD6636C4-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}

Tools

Sources

Browser Cache

The Browser cache is where web page components can be stored locally to speed up subsequent visits. It can be used to glean further information on what a user was actively looking at online. Providing the following information:

  • Websites visited
  • Files viewed on a website visited (caches files are linked to specific local accounts)
  • Timestamps indicate when site was first saved and last accessed.

WIN: XP+
SRV: Not Tested

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# INTERNET EXPLORER
# Versions 8-10
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5

# Version 11
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\IE

# Edge
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Packages\microsoft.micosoftedge_<APP ID>\AC\MicrosoftEdge\Cache

# MOZILLA FIREFOX
# WINDOWS XP
%USERPROFILE%\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles<RANDOM-TEXT>.default\cache

# WINDOWS 7+
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles<RANDOM-TEXT>.default\cache

# GOOGLE CHROME
# WINDOWS XP
%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cache\ - data_# and f_######

# WINDOWS 7+
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cache- data_# and f_######

Interpretation and Investigative Notes

Tools

Sources

Flash and Super Cookies

Local Stored Objects (LSO’s), or Flash Cookies, have become ubiquitous on most systems due to the extremely high penetration of Flash applications across the internet. They tend to be much more persistent because they do not expire, and there is no built-in mechanisms within the browser to remove them. In fact, many sites have begun using LSOs for their tracking mechanisms because they rarely get cleared like traditional cookies.

Provides the following information:

  • Websites visited
  • User account used to visit the site
  • When cookie was created and last accessed

WIN: 7+
SRV: Not Tested

Location

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%APPDATA%\Roaming\Macromedia\FlashPlayer#SharedObjects<random_profile_id>

Interpretation and Investigative Notes

Tools

Sources

Session Restore

Automatic Crash Recovery features built into the browser.

WIN: 7+
SRV: Not Tested

Location

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# INTERNET EXPLORER
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Recovery

# MOZILLA FIREFOX
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles<RANDOM-TEXT>.default\sessionstore.js

# GOOGLE CHROME
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\

Interpretation and Investigative Notes

  • Historical Websites viewed in each tab
  • Referring Websites
  • Time session ended
  • Modified time of .dat files in LastActive folder
  • Time each tab opened (only when crash occurred)
  • Creation time of .dat files in Active Folder

Tools

Sources

DFIR, Evidence Artifacts
cookies evtx:wlan srum
This post is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by the author.
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