Prefetch Analysis Lab

Analyze evidence of execution artifacts from a data breach investigation.

What is Prefetch?

In the world of digital forensics, Windows Prefetch files are a goldmine of information for investigators looking to understand program execution behavior. Prefetch files, automatically generated by Windows, are designed to speed up the application launch process. However, they also serve a critical secondary function by logging essential data about program execution. As this forensic artifact is covered in great detail in many other places, I will not recap it heavily here. I encourage you to do your own research to better understand the finer points of Prefetch. A fantastic resource to better understand the intricacies of prefetch is Microsoft’s own Guidance for Incident Responders. I’ve captured the relevant pieces in the screenshot below and I strongly encourage you to read all points.

In this post, we’ll explore the practical aspects of Prefetch file analysis, guiding you through a hands-on lab designed to equip you with the skills needed to extract, interpret, and utilize this information effectively. The lab utilizes prefetch files collected from a system involved in a simulated data breach attack.

Attack Scenario

We are investigating an intrusion involving a workstation owned by Bill Lumbergh of the Initech Software company. Bill is currently an IT technician hoping to break into the exciting cybersecurity career field.

Recently, Bill was looking for free resources for testing his skills in web app penetration testing and used Reddit to try to find a cracked version of a popular software called Burpsuite Pro. Unfortunately, an unsavory Redditor may have sent Bill some malware.

We have acquired key forensic artifacts from Bill’s system to better understand what happened once he ran the malware. This lab focuses exclusively on the Prefetch files obtained from Bill’s system. You might be surprised at just how much this one artifact will reveal about this attack.

Lab Guide

I have learned that Notion is much better for delivering lab guides than Substack, so the actual hands-on portion of this guide is covered here.