The $UsnJrnl is an artifact that logs certain changes to files in NTFS volumes. It is a great source of timeline information for malware\ IR investigations, time stomping concerns and anti-forensics activities (i.e. wiping) as well as an additional source of file use and knowledge evidence for disk forensics.

In this episode I talk Shimcache, otherwise known as the Application Compatibility Cache. This registry key has existed since Windows XP and tracks executable on a system, making it a great source of digital evidence for both disk forensics and incident response cases. In addition, there are freely available tools that will parse the data. It is not a difficult artifact to understand. Once an analyst spends the time learning how to pull, parse and interpret the data it is easily incorporated into an investigation and aligns well with other Windows artifacts.

In this episode I cover something I have been intending to do for some time: a Windows 10 artifacts overview. Here, I explore some key artifacts changes and what has stayed the same. Once I got into it I found there was a lot to talk about so, to start, I will discuss the topics from a high level. In future episodes I will dig in deeper to each artifact.

This episode I talk Just-Metadata, a freely available tool that gathers data about IP addresses from publicly available resources. Check out Truncer's website to learn more. I put together my quick start notes (below) for anyone interested in getting set up. This tool is very powerful and useful for Incident Response investigations, especially since you can batch upload IP addresses and quickly get useful details.

This episode I talk about PALADIN from SUMURI. PALADIN is a modified “live” Linux distribution based on Ubuntu that simplifies various forensics tasks in a forensically sound manner via the PALADIN Toolbox and used by thousands of digital forensic examiners from Law Enforcement, Military, Federal, State and Corporate agencies.