Autopsy

Autopsy

GUI disk forensics over The Sleuth Kit — deleted files, browser artifacts, registry, keyword search, timeline.

Installation

# Windows: download MSI installer from autopsy.com (recommended)

# Linux (Kali)
sudo apt install autopsy    # CLI-only version (browser-based at localhost:9999)

# Linux GUI: requires Java + dependencies
# https://www.autopsy.com/download/

# Launch (Linux CLI version)
autopsy
# Opens: http://localhost:9999/autopsy in browser

Quick Start: Open a Disk Image

1. New Case → enter case name, examiner, output path
2. Add Data Source → select image type:
   • Disk Image or VM File — .dd, .raw, .E01, .vmdk, .vhd
   • Local Disk — live disk (write-blocker recommended)
   • Logical Files — individual files or directories
3. Configure Ingest Modules (see below)
4. Wait for ingest, then explore results in the Tree pane

Ingest Modules — What to Enable

Recommended minimal set for fast triage: Recent Activity + File Type Identification + Keyword Search + Embedded File Extractor + PhotoRec Carver

Navigation: Tree Pane

After ingest, the left tree exposes:

Data Sources
└── disk.img
    ├── vol1 (NTFS, 50GB)
    │   ├── $OrphanFiles      ← deleted files with no parent dir
    │   ├── Users/
    │   ├── Windows/
    │   └── ...
Results
├── Extracted Content
│   ├── Bookmarks
│   ├── Cookies
│   ├── Downloads
│   ├── History
│   ├── Installed Programs
│   ├── Recent Documents
│   ├── Recycle Bin
│   ├── Search History
│   └── Web Form Autofill
├── Extension Mismatch Detected
├── Interesting Files
├── Keyword Hits
├── Metadata
└── Tags
Views
├── File Types
│   ├── Images
│   ├── Videos
│   ├── Documents
│   └── Executables
├── Deleted Files
└── File Size

Key Workflows

Find deleted files

Views → Deleted Files
# or
Data Sources → vol1 → $OrphanFiles
# Sort by name, extension, or date

Right-click → Extract File(s) to recover.

Keyword search

Tools → Keyword Search (or press Ctrl+F)

Options:

• Exact Match — literal string
• Substring Match — contains string
• Regex — full regex pattern

# Common patterns to search:
flag{.*}
password:
-----BEGIN.*KEY-----
[A-Za-z0-9+/]{20,}=    # base64
\b\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\b   # IP addresses

Results appear under Results → Keyword Hits. Click entry → view source file + highlighted match.

Browser artifact analysis

Results → Extracted Content → History
Results → Extracted Content → Downloads  
Results → Extracted Content → Bookmarks
Results → Extracted Content → Cookies
Results → Extracted Content → Search History

Filter by date. Sort by timestamp to reconstruct activity sequence.

Timeline analysis

Tools → Timeline (clock icon on toolbar)

• Zoom to specific time range
• Filter by event type: File System / Web Activity / Registry / Log
• Pinpoint when suspicious files were created/accessed
• Correlate browser activity with file system events

File type mismatch detection

Results → Extension Mismatch Detected

Files where magic bytes don't match extension — hidden data technique.

# CLI equivalent to find mismatches
file /path/to/extracted/* | grep -v "matches"

File carving (PhotoRec integration)

Autopsy runs PhotoRec automatically when module enabled. Results appear under:

Results → Extracted Content → Carved Files
# or
Data Sources → vol1 → $CarvedFiles

Useful for: JPEGs/PNGs hidden in unallocated space, ZIP archives, PDF fragments.

Registry Analysis

Autopsy extracts registry hives from Windows images automatically.

Data Sources → vol1 → Windows/System32/config/
# SAM, SYSTEM, SECURITY, SOFTWARE hives available as files

# Extract hive, then analyze with:
# - RegRipper (regripper.exe / rip.pl)
# - Registry Explorer (Eric Zimmermann tools)
# - python-registry (Python parsing)

Common registry paths to check:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run    # startup
HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run    # user startup
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services               # services
HKLM\SAM\SAM\Domains\Account\Users                  # user accounts
NTUSER.DAT\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RecentDocs  # recent files
NTUSER.DAT\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU       # run dialog history

Searching for Hidden/Embedded Data

Stegano indicators

# Look for unusual files in image:
Views → File Types → Images
# Sort by size — oversized images may contain hidden data
# Cross-check with steghide/zsteg/stegsolve after extraction

Encrypted or compressed containers

Results → Extracted Content (look for .zip, .7z, .rar, .veracrypt)
# or keyword search for "PK" (ZIP magic), "Rar!" (RAR magic), "7z" (7zip magic)

NTFS Alternate Data Streams

Autopsy doesn't surface ADS directly — use Sleuth Kit CLI:

# After finding target volume offset
fls -o 2048 disk.img | grep "::"   # ADS entries have "::" in name
icat -o 2048 disk.img <inode>:<stream> > ads_content

Export and Reporting

# Export files
Right-click file → Extract File(s)

# Tag files for report
Right-click → Add File Tag → Notable Item

# Generate report
Tools → Generate Report
# Select: HTML Report / Excel / KML / etc.
# Include: Tagged files / Keyword hits / All results

CLI Mode (Linux)

# Launch web UI
autopsy &
# Access at http://localhost:9999/autopsy

# CLI: create case + add image via TSK directly (see sleuth-kit skill)
mmls disk.img
fls -r -o 2048 disk.img | grep -i "flag\|secret"
icat -o 2048 disk.img <inode> > extracted_file

Integration

Resources