Practical Windows Forensics – TCM Security

Course Overview

The objective of this course is to show students how to perform a full digital forensic investigation of a Windows system in a complete DIY setup.

The course covers a full digital forensic investigation of a Windows system. It begins with the simple preparation of our lab, which consists of setting up a “victim” VM and a forensic workstation. We’ll then run an attack simulation script on the victim VM that simulates attack patterns as commonly observed by threat actors in the industry to create a realistic setting for our investigation. From there, we’ll kick off the forensic process, beginning with the data collection, examination and extraction before diving deeper into the analysis of the information at hand.

The data analysis section consists of a comprehensive investigation, including various tools and many different forensic artifacts with which every analyst should be familiar. We will not only analyze artifacts, but also discuss their behavior to learn when, why and how to interpret the data contained within these artifacts. The investigation covers Windows disk and memory artifacts and ends with the analysis of the timelines generated from both.

This course also covers many important artifacts and concepts relating to Windows forensic analysis. We’ll use several freely available tools for the analysis that are well known and recognized in the industry. The student will leave the course with a comprehensive understanding of the forensic process, important Windows artifacts and forensic tools and a forensic workstation available and ready to go for future investigations.

System Requirements

•  Basic IT knowledge

•  Familiarity with Windows operating systems and virtualization

•  Basic knowledge of command line utilities (Windows CMD, PowerShell, Ubuntu)

•  Critical thinking, curiosity, passion for investigations and solving cases

•  Min. 4GB RAM and 60 GB storage; Ideally, 8GB RAM, 2+ CPUs and 150GB storage (specifically for the last section “Super timelines”)

Q&As

* Where can I find support? You can find support through the Discord channel: https://discord.gg/WKsaGE2CV3 Please be patient, self-determined and willing to learn. That’s the only way to gain the skills you want!

* Will you be able to provide any of the VM’s? Due to licensing restrictions, unfortunately not.

* Where is the course material hosted? The course material is hosted on Github: https://github.com/bluecapesecurity/PWF

Who Should Take Practical Windows Forensics?

•  Beginners wanting to break into cyber security
•  SOC Analysts, Junior and senior IT security staff
•  Current DFIR and security analysts
•  Blue Teamers / Red Teamers / Penetration Testers
•  Lawyers and compliance staff

“Everything I wish I knew when I started analyzing Windows systems as a DFIR consultant.”