Analyzing Prefetch Files for Execution History

When to Use

• When determining which programs were executed on a Windows system and when
• During malware investigations to confirm execution of suspicious binaries
• For establishing a timeline of application usage during an incident
• When correlating program execution with other forensic artifacts
• To identify anti-forensic tools or unauthorized software that was run

Prerequisites

• Access to Windows Prefetch directory (C:\Windows\Prefetch) from forensic image
• PECmd (Eric Zimmerman), WinPrefetchView, or python-prefetch parser
• Understanding of Prefetch file format (versions 17, 23, 26, 30)
• Windows system with Prefetch enabled (default on client OS, disabled on servers)
• Knowledge of Prefetch naming conventions (APPNAME-HASH.pf)

Workflow

Step 1: Extract Prefetch Files from Forensic Image

# Mount the forensic image
mount -o ro,loop,offset=$((2048*512)) /cases/case-2024-001/images/evidence.dd /mnt/evidence

# Copy all prefetch files
mkdir -p /cases/case-2024-001/prefetch/
cp /mnt/evidence/Windows/Prefetch/*.pf /cases/case-2024-001/prefetch/

# Count and list prefetch files
ls -la /cases/case-2024-001…