Difference between revisions of "Google Chrome"

Revision as of 12:09, 2 May 2014

Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google Inc.

Configuration

The Google Chrome configuration can be found in the Preferences file.

On Linux

/home/$USER/.config/google-chrome/Default/Preferences

On MacOS-X

/Users/$USER/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Preferences

On Windows XP

C:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Preferences

On Windows Vista and later

C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Preferences

Or for Chrome SxS (Chrome side-by-side)

C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome SxS\User Data\Default\Preferences

Or for Chromium

On Linux

/home/$USER/.config/chromium/Default/Preferences

On MacOS-X

/Users/$USER/Library/Application Support/Chromium/Default/Preferences

On Windows XP

C:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Local Settings\Application Data\Chromium\User Data\Default\Preferences

On Windows Vista and later

C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Chromium\User Data\Default\Preferences

Plugins

Information about plugins can be found under the "plugins section" of the Preferences file.

DNS Prefetching

DNS is prefetched for related sites, e.g. links on the page. This behavior is controlled by the setting "Predict network actions to improve page load performance", which is enabled by default.

If enabled the Preferences file contains:

   "dns_prefetching": {
      "enabled": true,

If disabled the Preferences file contains:

   "dns_prefetching": {
      "enabled": false,

Start-up DNS queries

When Chrome starts it queries for several non-existing hostnames that consists of a 10 random characters, E.g.

ttrgoiknff.mydomain.com
bxjhgftsyu.mydomain.com
yokjbjiagd.mydomain.com

This is used to determine if your ISP is hijacking NXDOMAIN results [1].

Disk Cache

Google Chrome uses multiple caches, from [2]:

// The types of caches that can be created.
enum CacheType {
    DISK_CACHE,  // Disk is used as the backing storage.
    MEMORY_CACHE,  // Data is stored only in memory.
    MEDIA_CACHE,  // Optimized to handle media files.
    APP_CACHE,  // Backing store for an AppCache.
    SHADER_CACHE, // Backing store for the GL shader cache.
    PNACL_CACHE, // Backing store the PNaCl translation cache
};

Note that $PROFILE (or %PROFILE%) the paths below is the profile dependent subdirectory which is normally Default but also could be Profile1, Profile2, etc.

The Google Chrome disk cache can be found in:

On Linux

/home/$USER/.cache/chromium/$PROFILE/Cache/
/home/$USER/.cache/google-chrome/$PROFILE/Cache/
/home/$USER/.config/chromium/$PROFILE/Cache/
/home/$USER/.config/google-chrome/$PROFILE/Cache/

/home/$USER/.cache/chromium/$PROFILE/Media Cache/
/home/$USER/.cache/google-chrome/$PROFILE/Media Cache/
/home/$USER/.config/chromium/$PROFILE/Media Cache/
/home/$USER/.config/google-chrome/$PROFILE/Media Cache/

/home/$USER/.config/chromium/$PROFILE/Application Cache/Cache/
/home/$USER/.config/google-chrome/$PROFILE/Application Cache/Cache/

/home/$USER/.config/chromium/$PROFILE/GPUCache/
/home/$USER/.config/google-chrome/$PROFILE/GPUCache/

/home/$USER/.cache/chromium/PnaclTranslationCache/
/home/$USER/.cache/google-chrome/PnaclTranslationCache/

On MacOS-X

/Users/$USER/Library/Caches/Chromium/$PROFILE/Cache
/Users/$USER/Library/Caches/Google/Chrome/$PROFILE/Cache

TODO confirm these paths

/Users/$USER/Caches/Chromium/$PROFILE/Cache/
/Users/$USER/Caches/Google/Chrome/$PROFILE/Cache/

/Users/$USER/Library/Caches/Chromium/$PROFILE/Media Cache
/Users/$USER/Library/Caches/Google/Chrome/$PROFILE/Media Cache

/Users/$USER/Library/Application Support/Chromium/$PROFILE/Application Cache/Cache/
/Users/$USER/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/$PROFILE/Application Cache/Cache/

/Users/$USER/Library/Application Support/Chromium/$PROFILE/GPUChache
/Users/$USER/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/$PROFILE/GPUChache

/Users/$USER/Library/Caches/Chromium/PnaclTranslationCache
/Users/$USER/Library/Caches/Google/Chrome/PnaclTranslationCache

On Windows XP TODO confirm these paths

C:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Local Settings\Application Data\Chromium\User Data\Cache\
C:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Cache\

On Windows Vista and later

C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chromium\%PROFILE%\Cache\
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\%PROFILE%\Cache\

C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chromium\%PROFILE%\Application Cache\Cache\
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\%PROFILE%\Application Cache\Cache\

C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chromium\%PROFILE%\Media Cache\
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\%PROFILE%\Media Cache\

C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chromium\%PROFILE%\GPUCache\
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\%PROFILE%\GPUCache\

The Chrome Cache contains different files with the following file names:

index
data_#; where # contains a decimal digit.
f_######; where # contains a hexadecimal digit.

For more info see Chrome developers site [3].

History

Chrome stores the history of visited sites in a file named History. This file uses the SQLite database format.

The History file can be found in same location as the Preferences file.

There is also Archived History that predates information in the History file. Note that the Archived History only contains visits.

Timestamps

The History file uses the different timestamps.

visits.visit_time

The visits.visit_time is in (the number of) microseconds since January 1, 1601 UTC

Some Python code to do the conversion into human readable format:

date_string = datetime.datetime( 1601, 1, 1 )
            + datetime.timedelta( microseconds=timestamp )

Note that this timestamp is not the same as a Windows filetime which is (the number of) 100 nanoseconds since January 1, 1601 UTC

downloads.start_time

The downloads.start_time is in (the number of) seconds since January 1, 1970 UTC

Some Python code to do the conversion into human readable format:

date_string = datetime.datetime( 1970, 1, 1 )
            + datetime.timedelta( seconds=timestamp )

Example queries

Some example queries:

To get an overview of the visited sites:

SELECT datetime(((visits.visit_time/1000000)-11644473600), "unixepoch"), urls.url, urls.title FROM urls, visits WHERE urls.id = visits.url;

Note that the visit_time conversion looses precision.

To get an overview of the downloaded files:

SELECT datetime(downloads.start_time, "unixepoch"), downloads.url, downloads.full_path, downloads.received_bytes, downloads.total_bytes FROM downloads;

How the information of the downloaded files is stored in the database can vary per version of Chrome as of version 26:

SELECT datetime(((downloads.start_time/1000000)-11644473600), "unixepoch"), downloads.target_path, downloads_url_chains.url, downloads.received_bytes, downloads.total_bytes \
FROM downloads, downloads_url_chains WHERE downloads.id = downloads_url_chains.id;

Cookies

Chrome stores the cookies in a file named Cookies. This file uses the SQLite database format.

Extension Cookies

Chrome stores the cookies used by extensions in a file named Extension Cookies. This file uses the SQLite database format.

SELECT datetime(((cookies.creation_utc/1000000)-11644473600), "unixepoch"), cookies.host_key, cookies.name, cookies.value, cookies.path, \
datetime(((cookies.expires_utc/1000000)-11644473600), "unixepoch"), cookies.secure, cookies.httponly, datetime(((cookies.last_access_utc/1000000)-11644473600), "unixepoch"), \
cookies.has_expires, cookies.persistent, cookies.priority FROM cookies;

External Links

Wikipedia article on Google Chrome
The Chromium Projects - User Data Directory
Chrome Disk Cache
Chrome support forum article random 10 character hostnames on startup
Chrome User Agent strings
Google Chrome Forensics by Kristinn Guðjónsson, January 21, 2010
Cashing in on the Google Chrome Cache, John Lehr, February 24, 2013
History Index files removed from Chrome v30, by Ryan Benson, October 2, 2013
Evolution of Chrome Databases, by Ryan Benson, November 12, 2013

Tools

Open Source

hindsight-internet-history

Difference between revisions of "Google Chrome"

Revision as of 12:09, 2 May 2014

Contents

Configuration

Plugins

DNS Prefetching

Start-up DNS queries

Disk Cache

History

Timestamps

visits.visit_time

downloads.start_time

Example queries

Cookies

Extension Cookies

See Also

External Links

Tools

Open Source

Navigation menu

Personal tools

Namespaces

Variants

Views

More

Search

Navigation:

About forensicswiki.org:

Tools

@@ Line 97: / Line 97: @@
 };
 </pre>
+<b>Note that $PROFILE (or %PROFILE%) the paths below is the profile dependent subdirectory which is normally Default but also could be Profile1, Profile2, etc.</b>
 The Google Chrome disk cache can be found in:
@@ Line 103: / Line 105: @@
 <pre>
-/home/$USER/.cache/chromium/Default/Cache/
+/home/$USER/.cache/chromium/$PROFILE/Cache/
-/home/$USER/.cache/google-chrome/Default/Cache/
+/home/$USER/.cache/google-chrome/$PROFILE/Cache/
-/home/$USER/.config/chromium/Default/Cache/
+/home/$USER/.config/chromium/$PROFILE/Cache/
-/home/$USER/.config/google-chrome/Default/Cache/
+/home/$USER/.config/google-chrome/$PROFILE/Cache/
 </pre>
 <pre>
-/home/$USER/.cache/chromium/Default/Media Cache/
+/home/$USER/.cache/chromium/$PROFILE/Media Cache/
-/home/$USER/.cache/google-chrome/Default/Media Cache/
+/home/$USER/.cache/google-chrome/$PROFILE/Media Cache/
-/home/$USER/.config/chromium/Default/Media Cache/
+/home/$USER/.config/chromium/$PROFILE/Media Cache/
-/home/$USER/.config/google-chrome/Default/Media Cache/
+/home/$USER/.config/google-chrome/$PROFILE/Media Cache/
 </pre>
 <pre>
-/home/$USER/.config/chromium/Default/Application Cache/Cache/
+/home/$USER/.config/chromium/$PROFILE/Application Cache/Cache/
-/home/$USER/.config/google-chrome/Default/Application Cache/Cache/
+/home/$USER/.config/google-chrome/$PROFILE/Application Cache/Cache/
 </pre>
 <pre>
-/home/$USER/.config/chromium/Default/GPUCache/
+/home/$USER/.config/chromium/$PROFILE/GPUCache/
-/home/$USER/.config/google-chrome/Default/GPUCache/
+/home/$USER/.config/google-chrome/$PROFILE/GPUCache/
 </pre>
@@ Line 133: / Line 135: @@
 On MacOS-X
 <pre>
-/Users/$USER/Caches/Chromium/Default/Cache/
+/Users/$USER/Library/Caches/Chromium/$PROFILE/Cache
-/Users/$USER/Caches/Google/Chrome/Default/Cache/
+/Users/$USER/Library/Caches/Google/Chrome/$PROFILE/Cache
+</pre>
+<b>TODO confirm these paths</b>
+<pre>
+/Users/$USER/Caches/Chromium/$PROFILE/Cache/
+/Users/$USER/Caches/Google/Chrome/$PROFILE/Cache/
+</pre>
+<pre>
+/Users/$USER/Library/Caches/Chromium/$PROFILE/Media Cache
+/Users/$USER/Library/Caches/Google/Chrome/$PROFILE/Media Cache
+</pre>
+<pre>
+/Users/$USER/Library/Application Support/Chromium/$PROFILE/Application Cache/Cache/
+/Users/$USER/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/$PROFILE/Application Cache/Cache/
+</pre>
+<pre>
+/Users/$USER/Library/Application Support/Chromium/$PROFILE/GPUChache
+/Users/$USER/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/$PROFILE/GPUChache
+</pre>
+<pre>
+/Users/$USER/Library/Caches/Chromium/PnaclTranslationCache
+/Users/$USER/Library/Caches/Google/Chrome/PnaclTranslationCache
 </pre>
 On Windows XP
+<b>TODO confirm these paths</b>
 <pre>
 C:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Local Settings\Application Data\Chromium\User Data\Cache\
@@ Line 145: / Line 174: @@
 On Windows Vista and later
 <pre>
-C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chromium\Default\Cache\
+C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chromium\%PROFILE%\Cache\
-C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cache\
+C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\%PROFILE%\Cache\
 </pre>
 <pre>
-C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chromium\Default\Application Cache\Cache\
+C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chromium\%PROFILE%\Application Cache\Cache\
-C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Application Cache\Cache\
+C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\%PROFILE%\Application Cache\Cache\
 </pre>
 <pre>
-C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chromium\Default\Media Cache\
+C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chromium\%PROFILE%\Media Cache\
-C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Media Cache\
+C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\%PROFILE%\Media Cache\
 </pre>
 <pre>
-C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chromium\Default\GPUCache\
+C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chromium\%PROFILE%\GPUCache\
-C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\GPUCache\
+C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\%PROFILE%\GPUCache\
 </pre>