Script Update - Mac MRU Parser - Spotlight Shortcuts & BLOB Parsing!

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Get the script here!

Added in Spotlight Shortcuts

I've updated my macMRU.py script to parse the Spotlight Shortcuts plist file that I consider to be very MRU-like. This plist file contains what the user typed into the Spotlight search window, what they clicked on, and when this all occurred. You can find artifacts of application usage, documents, emails, photos, etc.

Bookmark and Alias BLOB Parsing

The second part of the update (and probably the most requested!) was to add in arguments to allow the analyst to see the parse out the Bookmark and Alias BLOB data. Previously the script only had an option to show the BLOB hexdump. Using mac_alias [download here], the script can now parse these BLOBs. This comes with a caveat, this script relies on the documented structures by others (with a few minor changes by my own research). These have not been officially documented by Apple therefore YMMV. Many of us are still researching these, hopefully this script will help the process! This update provides three new arguments:

  • --blob_hex = This is the same as what --blob was before. Just a hexdump of the BLOB data.
  • --blob_parse_raw = This shows the raw output from mac_alias, not exactly the easiest to read but good for debugging.
  • --blob_parse_human = This shows the pieces of the BLOBs in a (mostly) human-friendly (example below).

I want to say thank you to a few folks that allowed these additions to be made:

  • Alastair Houghton & Wim Lewis - For mac_alias and the reversing the Alias/Bookmark structures. I took a shot at it years ago and gave up, really appreciate someone else's effort!
  • Phill Moore of thisweekin4n6.com - You'll notice some support for legacy keys in the com.apple.recentitems.plist have also been added in this update thanks to Phil and his oddly old MRUs files! :) I also appreciate his testing of this tool on Windows also. (Sorry Phil, didn't get a chance to test it on Windows yet!) 
  • Shout out to Patrick Olsen for his work on Alias V3 structures. Unfortunately I did not get to use his research - turns out V3 Alias BLOBs do not get used in any of the MRUs that I'm parsing in this script (they are all V2)! Maybe in the future!

Script Update - Mac (& iOS) Location Scraper (macOS and iOS 10 Updates)

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Yep, you read that right - Mac Location Scraper! I've updated my 'iOS Location Scraper' script to be compatible with the same location database found on iOS - the cache_encryptedA.db (and lockCache_encryptedA.db) that are now found on macOS at least as far back as 10.8. 

On macOS these databases hold similar Wi-Fi location data. I have found these databases to be located in the /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000sm00006d/C/ directory. It appears to store about last seven days worth of Wi-Fi related data.

I have also updated the script to support the newer 'routined' CoreRoutine.sqlite database on iOS 10. This database does tend to get stored with a *.shm/*.wal database files so I would recommend pulling off all the files and consolidating them into the main database *.sqlite file, otherwise all the data will not be extracted.

You can get the script here!

New Presentation! 'The Cider Press: Extracting Forensic Artifacts from Apple Continuity'

Heather Mahalik and I presented on Apple Continuity artifacts at the SANS DFIR Summit. This is one of my favorite conferences of the year. I always have a good time reconnecting with old friends and meeting new ones! This year was no different. I look forward to it every year. It is my DFIR summer camp.

Slides can be found here!

This research is ongoing - we're adding in network artifacts from Phil Hagen! We will present it at future conferences (SANS SANSFIRE, CDI, and Network Security).