registry analysis
DESCRIPTION
Registry Analysis. What is it? What does it contain?. Objectives. Logical and physical structure of the Registry Format of Registry files Examination of the Registry Forensically important keys Analyzing Registry information. The Registry. Hierarchal database - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Objectives
• Logical and physical structure of the Registry
• Format of Registry files• Examination of the Registry• Forensically important keys• Analyzing Registry information
The Registry
• Hierarchal database • Maintains configuration settings
– Applications– Hardware– Devices– Users
Registry Access
• Regedit.exe – A “GUI” interface to the Registry
• Native to XP and above• NT and 2000 has regedit.exe but with
limited capablities
Registry Data Types
Series of nested arrays designed to store a list of resources
A list of resources used by a physical HW device
A list of HW resources used by a device driver
Logical Structure
• Highest Level• My Computer
• Contains Five Root Hives• Each Hive consists of
• Keys
• Each key has a set of • <Name Type Value> triples• Subkeys
Root Hives
• HKEY_USERS• Contains all the actively loaded user profiles for the
system
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER• Is the active, loaded user profile currently logged on
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE• Contains configuration information for the system
both HW and SW
Root Hives (cont’d)
• HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG• Contains the hardware profile the system uses at
startup
• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT• Contains configuration information for which apps
open which files
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTApplication to File Mapping
This hive is subclassed to HKCU\Software\ClassesHKLM \Software\Classes
Registry Cell Types
• Key cell• Key info, offsets to subkeys and LastWrite time
• Value cell• Holds a value/name and its data
• Subkey list cell• Series of subkey offsets
• Value list cell• Series of offsets to value cells