Difference between revisions of "Windows Registry"

Revision as of 02:27, 29 April 2013

File Locations

The Windows Registry is stored in multiple files.

Windows NT 4

In Windows NT 4 (and later) the Registry is stored in the Windows NT Registry File (REGF) format.

Basically the following Registry hives are stored in the corresponding files:

HKEY_USERS: \Documents and Setting\User Profile\NTUSER.DAT
HKEY_USERS\DEFAULT: C:\Windows\system32\config\default
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SAM: C:\Windows\system32\config\SAM
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SECURITY: C:\Windows\system32\config\SECURITY
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE: C:\Windows\system32\config\software
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM: C:\Windows\system32\config\system

Windows 98/ME

\Windows\user.dat
\Windows\system.dat
\Windows\profiles\user profile\user.dat

Keys

Run/RunOnce

System-wide:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce

Per user:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce

Special cases

The Windows Registry has several special case scenarios, mainly concerning key and value name, that are easy to fail to account for:

special characters key and value names
duplicate key and value names
the names when stored in extended ASCII (ANSI string) use a codepage that is dependent on the system settings

special characters key and value names

Both key and values names are case insensitive. The \ character is used as the key separator. Note that the \ character can be used in value names. The / character is used in both key and value names. Some examples of which are:

Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Services\NetBT\Parameters\
Value: Size/Small/Medium/Large

Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Terminal Server\VIDEO\disc\
Value: \Device\Video0

Key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\services\xmlprov\Parameters\SchemaGroups\User\http://www.microsoft.com/provisioning/eaptlsuserpropertiesv1\
Value: SchemaFile

codepaged ASCII strings

Value with name "ëigenaardig" created on Windows XP codepage 1252.

value key data:
00000000: 76 6b 0b 00 46 00 00 00  20 98 1a 00 01 00 00 00   vk..F...  .......
00000010: 01 00 69 6e eb 69 67 65  6e 61 61 72 64 69 67 00   ..in.ige naardig.
00000020: 55 4e 49 43                                        UNIC

value key signature                     : vk
value key value name size               : 11
value key data size                     : 0x00000046 (70)
value key data offset                   : 0x001a9820
value key data type                     : 1 (REG_SZ) String
value key flags                         : 0x0001
        Value name is an ASCII string

value key unknown1                      : 0x6e69 (28265)
value key value name                    : ëigenaardig
value key value name hash               : 0xb78835ee
value key padding:
00000000: 00 55 4e 49 43                                     .UNIC

As you can see the name is stored in extended ASCII (ANSI) using codepage 1252.

Tools

Open Source

Forensic Registry EDitor (fred) - "Forensic Registry EDitor (fred) is a cross-platform M$ registry hive editor" by Daniel Gillen
libregfi - The regfi library is a read-only NT registry library which serves as the main engine behind the reglookup tool
reglookup — "small command line utility for reading and querying Windows NT-based registries."
regviewer — a tool for looking at the registry.
RegRipper — "the fastest, easiest, and best tool for registry analysis in forensics examinations."
Parse::Win32Registry Perl module.
python-registry Python module.
Registry Decoder offline analysis component, by Andrew Case
RegDecoderLive live hive acquisition component, by Andrew Case
libregf - Library and tools to access the Windows NT Registry File (REGF) format
Registryasxml - Tool to import/export registry sections as XML
kregedit - a KDE utility for viewing and editing registry files.
ntreg a file system driver for linux, which understands the NT registry file format.

Freeware

Yet Another Registry Utility (yaru) Free tool that can be run on Windows, Linux or Mac OS-X. If run in admin mode, allows viewing of registry hives on live system.

Windows ShellBag Parser Free tool that can be run on Windows, Linux or Mac OS-X.

cafae - Computer Account Forensic Artifact Extractor. Free tool that can be run on Windows, Linux or Mac OS-X to parse ntuser.dat hives.

Commercial

Bibliography

Using ShellBag Information to Reconstruct User Activities, by Yuandong Zhu*, Pavel Gladyshev, Joshua James, DFRWS 2009
Recovering Deleted Data From the Windows Registry and slides, by Timothy Morgan, DFRWS 2008
Forensic Analysis of the Windows Registry in Memory and slides, by Brendan Dolan-Gavitt, DFRWS 2008
A Windows Registry Quick-Reference, by Derrick Farmer, Burlington, VT.

The Windows Registry as a forensic resource, Digital Investigation, Volume 2, Issue 3, September 2005, Pages 201--205.

Forensic Analysis of the Windows Registry, by Lih Wern Wong , School of Computer and Information Science, Edith Cowan University

The Windows NT Registry File Format, by Timothy Morgan

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-==Bibliography==
+==File Locations==
-* Recovering Deleted Data From the Windows Registry. Timothy Morgan, DFRWS 2008 [http://www.dfrws.org/2008/proceedings/p33-morgan.pdf [paper]] [http://www.dfrws.org/2008/proceedings/p33-morgan_pres.pdf [slides]]
+The Windows Registry is stored in multiple files.
-* [http://www.pkdavies.co.uk/documents/Computer_Forensics/registry_examination.pdf
-* [http://dfrws.org/2008/proceedings/p26-dolan-gavitt.pdf Forensic Analysis of the Windows Registry in Memory], Brendan Dolan-Gavitt, DFRWS 2008  [http://dfrws.org/2008/proceedings/p26-dolan-gavitt_pres.pdf [slides]]
+===Windows NT 4 ===
-* [http://www.pkdavies.co.uk/documents/Computer_Forensics/registry_examination.pdf Forensic Analysis of the Windows Registry], Peter Davies, Computer Forensics: Coursework 2 (student paper)
+In Windows NT 4 (and later) the Registry is stored in the [[Windows NT Registry File (REGF)]] format.
-* [http://eptuners.com/forensics/A%20Windows%20Registry%20Quick%20Reference.pdf A Windows Registry Quick-Reference], Derrick Farmer, Burlington, VT.
-* [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B7CW4-4GX1J3B-1&_user=3326500&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000060280&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=3326500&md5=ab887593e7be6d5257696707886978f1 The Windows Registry as a forensic resource], Digital Investigation, Volume 2, Issue 3, September 2005, Pages 201--205.
+Basically the following Registry hives are stored in the corresponding files:
+* HKEY_USERS: \Documents and Setting\User Profile\NTUSER.DAT
+* HKEY_USERS\DEFAULT: C:\Windows\system32\config\default
+* HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SAM: C:\Windows\system32\config\SAM
+* HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SECURITY: C:\Windows\system32\config\SECURITY
+* HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE: C:\Windows\system32\config\software
+* HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM: C:\Windows\system32\config\system
-* [http://www.forensicfocus.com/downloads/forensic-analysis-windows-registry.pdf Forensic Analysis of the Windows Registry], Lih Wern Wong , School of Computer and Information Science, Edith Cowan University
+===Windows 98/ME===
+* \Windows\user.dat
+* \Windows\system.dat
+* \Windows\profiles\user profile\user.dat
-* [http://www.sentinelchicken.com/research/registry_format/ The Windows NT Registry File Format], Timothy D. Morgan
+== Keys ==
+=== Run/RunOnce ===
+System-wide:
+<pre>
+HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
+HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
+</pre>
+Per user:
+<pre>
+HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
+HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
+</pre>
+== Special cases ==
+The Windows Registry has several special case scenarios, mainly concerning key and value name, that are easy to fail to account for:
+* special characters key and value names
+* duplicate key and value names
+* the names when stored in extended ASCII (ANSI string) use a codepage that is dependent on the system settings
+=== special characters key and value names ===
+Both key and values names are case insensitive. The \ character is used as the key separator. Note
+that the \ character can be used in value names. The / character is used in both key and value names.
+Some examples of which are:
+<pre>
+Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Services\NetBT\Parameters\
+Value: Size/Small/Medium/Large
+</pre>
+<pre>
+Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Terminal Server\VIDEO\disc\
+Value: \Device\Video0
+</pre>
+<pre>
+Key:
+HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\services\xmlprov\Parameters\SchemaGroups\User\http://www.microsoft.com/provisioning/eaptlsuserpropertiesv1\
+Value: SchemaFile
+</pre>
+=== codepaged ASCII strings ===
+Value with name "ëigenaardig" created on Windows XP codepage 1252.
+<pre>
+value key data:
+00000000: 76 6b 0b 00 46 00 00 00  20 98 1a 00 01 00 00 00   vk..F...  .......
+00000010: 01 00 69 6e eb 69 67 65  6e 61 61 72 64 69 67 00   ..in.ige naardig.
+00000020: 55 4e 49 43                                        UNIC
+value key signature                     : vk
+value key value name size               : 11
+value key data size                     : 0x00000046 (70)
+value key data offset                   : 0x001a9820
+value key data type                     : 1 (REG_SZ) String
+value key flags                         : 0x0001
+        Value name is an ASCII string
+value key unknown1                      : 0x6e69 (28265)
+value key value name                    : ëigenaardig
+value key value name hash               : 0xb78835ee
+value key padding:
+00000000: 00 55 4e 49 43                                     .UNIC
+</pre>
+As you can see the name is stored in extended ASCII (ANSI) using codepage 1252.
 ==Tools==
 ===Open Source===
-* [http://sourceforge.net/projects/regviewer/ regviewer] -- a tool for looking at the registry.
+* [https://www.pinguin.lu/index.php Forensic Registry EDitor (fred)] - "Forensic Registry EDitor (fred) is a cross-platform M$ registry hive editor" by [[Daniel Gillen]]
-* [http://www.regripper.net/ RegRipper] --- "the fastest, easiest, and best tool for registry analysis in forensics examinations."
+* [http://projects.sentinelchicken.org/data/doc/reglookup/regfi/ libregfi] - The regfi library is a read-only NT registry library which serves as the main engine behind the reglookup tool
+* [http://projects.sentinelchicken.org/reglookup/ reglookup] — "small command line utility for reading and querying Windows NT-based registries."
+* [http://sourceforge.net/projects/regviewer/ regviewer] — a tool for looking at the registry.
+* [[Regripper|RegRipper]] — "the fastest, easiest, and best tool for registry analysis in forensics examinations."
+* [http://search.cpan.org/~jmacfarla/Parse-Win32Registry-0.51/lib/Parse/Win32Registry.pm Parse::Win32Registry] Perl module.
+* [http://www.williballenthin.com/registry/index.html python-registry] Python module.
+* [http://code.google.com/p/registrydecoder/ Registry Decoder] offline analysis component, by [[Andrew Case]]
+* [http://code.google.com/p/registrydecoder/ RegDecoderLive] live hive acquisition component, by [[Andrew Case]]
+* [[libregf]] - Library and tools to access the Windows NT Registry File (REGF) format
+* [[Registryasxml]] - Tool to import/export registry sections as XML
+* [http://samba.org/~jelmer/kregedit/ kregedit] - a KDE utility for viewing and editing registry files.
+* [http://www.bindview.com/Services/RAZOR/Utilities/Unix_Linux/ntreg_readme.cfm ntreg] a file system driver for linux, which understands the NT registry file format.
+===Freeware===
+* [http://www.tzworks.net/prototype_page.php?proto_id=3 Yet Another Registry Utility (yaru)] Free tool that can be run on Windows, Linux or Mac OS-X. If run in admin mode, allows viewing of registry hives on live system.
+* [http://www.tzworks.net/prototype_page.php?proto_id=14 Windows ShellBag Parser] Free tool that can be run on Windows, Linux or Mac OS-X.
+* [http://tzworks.net/prototype_page.php?proto_id=19 ''cafae''] - Computer Account Forensic Artifact Extractor.  Free tool that can be run on Windows, Linux or Mac OS-X to parse ntuser.dat hives.
 ===Commercial===
 * [http://www.abexo.com/free-registry-cleaner.htm Abexo Free Regisry Cleaner]
@@ Line 23: / Line 115: @@
 * [http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/index.htm NT Registry Optimizer]
 * [http://www.registry-clean.net/free-registry-defrag.htm iExpert Software-Free Registry Defrag]
+* [http://arsenalrecon.com/apps Registry Recon]
 * [http://paullee.ru/regundel Registry Undelete (russian)]
 * [http://mitec.cz/wrr.html Windows Registry Recovery]
+* [http://registrytool.com/ Registry Tool]
+==Bibliography==
+* [http://www.dfrws.org/2009/proceedings/p69-zhu.pdf Using ShellBag Information to Reconstruct User Activities], by Yuandong Zhu*, Pavel Gladyshev, Joshua James, DFRWS 2009
+* [http://www.dfrws.org/2008/proceedings/p33-morgan.pdf Recovering Deleted Data From the Windows Registry] and [http://www.dfrws.org/2008/proceedings/p33-morgan_pres.pdf slides], by [[Timothy Morgan]], DFRWS 2008
+* [http://dfrws.org/2008/proceedings/p26-dolan-gavitt.pdf Forensic Analysis of the Windows Registry in Memory] and [http://dfrws.org/2008/proceedings/p26-dolan-gavitt_pres.pdf slides], by Brendan Dolan-Gavitt, DFRWS 2008
+* [http://eptuners.com/forensics/A%20Windows%20Registry%20Quick%20Reference.pdf A Windows Registry Quick-Reference], by Derrick Farmer, Burlington, VT.
+* [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B7CW4-4GX1J3B-1&_user=3326500&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000060280&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=3326500&md5=ab887593e7be6d5257696707886978f1 The Windows Registry as a forensic resource], Digital Investigation, Volume 2, Issue 3, September 2005, Pages 201--205.
+* [http://www.forensicfocus.com/downloads/forensic-analysis-windows-registry.pdf Forensic Analysis of the Windows Registry], by Lih Wern Wong , School of Computer and Information Science, Edith Cowan University
+* [http://www.sentinelchicken.com/research/registry_format/ The Windows NT Registry File Format], by [[Timothy Morgan]]
 ==See Also==
+* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Registry Wikipedia: Windows Registry]
 * [http://windowsir.blogspot.com/search/label/Registry Windows Incident Response Articles on Registry]
 * [http://www.answers.com/topic/win-registry Windows Registry Information]
-* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Registry Wikipedia Article on Windows Registry]
+* [http://moyix.blogspot.com/search/label/registry Push the Red Button] — Articles on Registry
+* [http://www.beginningtoseethelight.org/ntsecurity/ Security Accounts Manager]
+=== Windows 32-bit on Windows 64-bit (WoW64) ===
+* [http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa384253(v=vs.85).aspx Registry Keys Affected by WOW64], by [[Microsoft]]
+* [http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa384232(VS.85).aspx Registry Redirector], by [[Microsoft]]
+[[Category:Windows Analysis]]
 [[Category:Bibliographies]]
-* [http://moyix.blogspot.com/search/label/registry Push the Red Button] - Articles on Registry

Difference between revisions of "Windows Registry"

Revision as of 02:27, 29 April 2013

Contents

File Locations

Windows NT 4

Windows 98/ME

Keys

Run/RunOnce

Special cases

special characters key and value names

codepaged ASCII strings

Tools

Open Source

Freeware

Commercial

Bibliography

See Also

Windows 32-bit on Windows 64-bit (WoW64)

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