regipy

Regipy is a python library for parsing offline registry hives (Hive files with REGF header). regipy has a lot of capabilities:

• Use as a library:
  • Recurse over the registry hive, from root or a given path and get all subkeys and values
  • Read specific subkeys and values
  • Apply transaction logs on a registry hive
• Command Line Tools
  • Dump an entire registry hive to json
  • Apply transaction logs on a registry hive
  • Compare registry hives
  • Execute plugins from a robust plugin system (i.e: amcache, shimcache, extract computer name...)

Installation

Regipy latest version can be installed from pypi:

pip install regipy[full]

NOTE: regipy[full] installs dependencies that require compilation tools and might take some time. It is possible to install a version with relaxed dependencies, by omitting the [full].

Also, it is possible to install from source by cloning the repository and executing:

pip install --editable .[full]

CLI

Parse the header:

regipy-parse-header ~/Documents/TestEvidence/Registry/SYSTEM

Example output:

╒════════════════════════╤══════════╕
│ signature              │ b'regf'  │
├────────────────────────┼──────────┤
│ primary_sequence_num   │ 11639    │
├────────────────────────┼──────────┤
│ secondary_sequence_num │ 11638    │
├────────────────────────┼──────────┤
│ last_modification_time │ 0        │
├────────────────────────┼──────────┤
│ major_version          │ 1        │
├────────────────────────┼──────────┤
│ minor_version          │ 5        │
├────────────────────────┼──────────┤
│ file_type              │ 0        │
├────────────────────────┼──────────┤
│ file_format            │ 1        │
├────────────────────────┼──────────┤
│ root_key_offset        │ 32       │
├────────────────────────┼──────────┤
│ hive_bins_data_size    │ 10534912 │
├────────────────────────┼──────────┤
│ clustering_factor      │ 1        │
├────────────────────────┼──────────┤
│ file_name              │ SYSTEM   │
├────────────────────────┼──────────┤
│ checksum               │ 0        │
╘════════════════════════╧══════════╛
[2019-02-09 13:46:12.111654] WARNING: regipy.cli: Hive is not clean! You should apply transaction logs

• When parsing the header of a hive, also checksum validation and transaction validations are done

Dump entire hive to disk (this might take some time)

regipy-dump ~/Documents/TestEvidence/Registry/NTUSER-CCLEANER.DAT -o /tmp/output.json

regipy-dump util can also output a timeline instead of a JSON, by adding the -t flag

Run relevant plugins on Hive

regipy-plugins-run ~/Documents/TestEvidence/Registry/SYSTEM -o /tmp/plugins_output.json

The hive type will be detected automatically and the relevant plugins will be executed. See the plugins section for more information

Compare registry hives

Compare registry hives of the same type and output to CSV (if -o is not specified output will be printed to screen)

regipy-diff NTUSER.dat NTUSER_modified.dat -o /tmp/diff.csv

Example output:

[2019-02-11 19:49:18.824245] INFO: regipy.cli: Comparing NTUSER.DAT vs NTUSER_modified.DAT
╒══════════════╤══════════════╤════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╤════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
│ difference   │ first_hive   │ second_hive                                                                    │ description                                    │
╞══════════════╪══════════════╪════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╪════════════════════════════════════════════════╡
│ new_subkey   │              │ 2019-02-11T19:46:31.832134+00:00                                               │ \Software\Microsoft\legitimate_subkey          │
├──────────────┼──────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ new_value    │              │ not_a_malware: c:\temp\legitimate_binary.exe @ 2019-02-11 19:45:25.516346+00:00 │ \Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run │
╘══════════════╧══════════════╧════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╧════════════════════════════════════════════════╛
[2019-02-11 19:49:18.825328] INFO: regipy.cli: Detected 2 differences

Recover a registry hive, using transaction logs:

regipy-transaction-logs NTUSER.DAT -p ntuser.dat.log1 -s ntuser.dat.log2 -o recovered_NTUSER.dat 

After recovering, compare the hives with registry-diff to see what changed

Using as a library

Initiate the registry hive object

from regipy.registry import RegistryHive
reg = RegistryHive('/Users/martinkorman/Documents/TestEvidence/Registry/Vibranium-NTUSER.DAT')

Iterate recursively over the entire hive, from root key

for entry in reg.recurse_subkeys(as_json=True):
    print(entry)

Iterate over a key and get all subkeys and their modification time:

for sk in reg.get_key('Software').iter_subkeys():
    print(sk.name, convert_wintime(sk.header.last_modified).isoformat())

Adobe 2019-02-03T22:05:32.525965
AppDataLow 2019-02-03T22:05:32.526047
McAfee 2019-02-03T22:05:32.526140
Microsoft 2019-02-03T22:05:32.526282
Netscape 2019-02-03T22:05:32.526352
ODBC 2019-02-03T22:05:32.526521
Policies 2019-02-03T22:05:32.526592

Get the values of a key:

reg.get_key('Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\BrowserEmulation').get_values(as_json=True)
[{'name': 'CVListTTL',
  'value': 0,
  'value_type': 'REG_DWORD',
  'is_corrupted': False},
 {'name': 'UnattendLoaded',
  'value': 0,
  'value_type': 'REG_DWORD',
  'is_corrupted': False},
 {'name': 'TLDUpdates',
  'value': 0,
  'value_type': 'REG_DWORD',
  'is_corrupted': False},
 {'name': 'CVListXMLVersionLow',
  'value': 2097211,
  'value_type': 'REG_DWORD',
  'is_corrupted': False},
 {'name': 'CVListXMLVersionHigh',
  'value': None,
  'value_type': 'REG_DWORD',
  'is_corrupted': False},
 {'name': 'CVListLastUpdateTime',
  'value': None,
  'value_type': 'REG_DWORD',
  'is_corrupted': False},
 {'name': 'IECompatVersionHigh',
  'value': None,
  'value_type': 'REG_DWORD',
  'is_corrupted': False},
 {'name': 'IECompatVersionLow',
  'value': 2097211,
  'value_type': 'REG_DWORD',
  'is_corrupted': False},
 {'name': 'StaleCompatCache',
  'value': 0,
  'value_type': 'REG_DWORD',
  'is_corrupted': False}]

Use as a plugin:

from regipy.plugins.ntuser.ntuser_persistence import NTUserPersistencePlugin
NTUserPersistencePlugin(reg, as_json=True).run()

{
	'Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Run': {
		'timestamp': '2019-02-03T22:10:52.655462',
		'values': [{
			'name': 'Sidebar',
			'value': '%ProgramFiles%\\Windows Sidebar\\Sidebar.exe /autoRun',
			'value_type': 'REG_EXPAND_SZ',
			'is_corrupted': False
		}]
	}
}

Run all relevant plugins for a specific hive

from regipy.plugins.utils import run_relevant_plugins
reg = RegistryHive('/Users/martinkorman/Documents/TestEvidence/Registry/SYSTEM')
run_relevant_plugins(reg, as_json=True)

{
	'routes': {},
	'computer_name': [{
		'control_set': 'ControlSet001\\Control\\ComputerName\\ComputerName',
		'computer_name': 'DESKTOP-5EG84UG',
		'timestamp': '2019-02-03T22:19:28.853219'
	}]
}

Validation cases

Validation cases report

all new plugins should have a one or more basic validation cases (which can be expanded in the future), for example:

from regipy.plugins.system.bam import BAMPlugin
from regipy_tests.validation.validation import ValidationCase


class NTUserUserAssistValidationCase(ValidationCase):
    # define your plugin class
    plugin = BAMPlugin
    # define the test file name, which should be present in `regipy_tests/data`
    test_hive_file_name = "SYSTEM_WIN_10_1709.xz"

    # Use `expected_entries` to test for presence of a few samples from the plugin results
    expected_entries = [
        {
            "sequence_number": 9,
            "version": 1,
            "sid": "S-1-5-90-0-1",
            "executable": "\\Device\\HarddiskVolume2\\Windows\\System32\\dwm.exe",
            "timestamp": "2020-04-19T09:09:35.731816+00:00",
            "key_path": "\\ControlSet001\\Services\\bam\\state\\UserSettings\\S-1-5-90-0-1",
        }
    ]

    # OR use `exact_expected_result` to test for an exact result:
    exact_expected_result = [
        {
            "sequence_number": 9,
            "version": 1,
            "sid": "S-1-5-90-0-1",
            "executable": "\\Device\\HarddiskVolume2\\Windows\\System32\\dwm.exe",
            "timestamp": "2020-04-19T09:09:35.731816+00:00",
            "key_path": "\\ControlSet001\\Services\\bam\\state\\UserSettings\\S-1-5-90-0-1",
        },
        {
            "sequence_number": 8,
            "version": 1,
            "sid": "S-1-5-90-0-1",
            "executable": "\\Device\\HarddiskVolume2\\Windows\\System32\\cmd.exe",
            "timestamp": "2020-04-19T09:09:34.544224+00:00",
            "key_path": "\\ControlSet001\\Services\\bam\\state\\UserSettings\\S-1-5-90-0-1",
        }
    ]

    expected_entries_count = 2