CTF forensics methodology

1. Identify the input

file <input>
xxd <input> | head -20

Magic	Type	First tool
7F 45 4C 46	ELF	use ctf-rev skill
4D 5A	PE	use ctf-rev skill
PK	ZIP/JAR/APK/Office	unzip -l, binwalk
D4 C3 B2 A1 / 0A 0D 0D 0A	PCAP / pcapng	wireshark
4D 53 53 54 30 30 30	Volatility memory raw	volatility
45 56 46	EWF / E01 image	ewfmount
Arbitrary blob, high entropy	Encrypted/compressed	binwalk / strings

2. PCAP analysis

# Quick triage
capinfos <pcap>                                # summary
tshark -r <pcap> -q -z io,phs                  # protocol hierarchy
tshark -r <pcap> -q -z conv,tcp                # TCP conversations
tshark -r <pcap> -q -z http,tree               # HTTP requests

# Extract objects
tshark -r <pcap> --export-objects http,./out
foremost -i <pcap> -o ./carved

# Wireshark for visual: File → Export Objects → HTTP/SMB/etc

# Search payloads
tshark -r <pcap> -Y 'http.request.method == "POST"' -T fields -e http.file_data

USB HID keystroke decode (common challenge):

• Filter usb.capdata in tshark
• Map HID scancodes → keys (script: usbkeyboard.py, usbrip)

Bluetooth: btsnoop parser, wireshark natively decodes.

TLS with key log: tshark -r <pcap> -o tls.keylog_file:keys.log to decrypt.

3. Memory forensics (Volatility)

# Identify profile (vol2) or no profile needed (vol3)
vol.py -f mem.raw imageinfo                       # vol2
vol3 -f mem.raw windows.info                      # vol3

# Common plugins
vol3 -f mem.raw windows.pslist
vol3 -f mem.raw windows.cmdline
vol3 -f mem.raw windows.netstat
vol3 -f mem.raw windows.malfind
vol3 -f mem.raw windows.dumpfiles --pid <pid>
vol3 -f mem.raw windows.hashdump
vol3 -f mem.raw windows.lsadump
vol3 -f mem.raw windows.consoles                  # cmd.exe history
vol3 -f mem.raw windows.clipboard
vol3 -f mem.raw windows.registry.printkey -K "Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run"

# Linux
vol3 -f mem.raw linux.bash                        # bash history
vol3 -f mem.raw linux.psaux

4. Disk image analysis

# Mount EWF
ewfmount disk.E01 /mnt/ewf
mmls /mnt/ewf/ewf1                                # partition table
fsstat -o <offset> /mnt/ewf/ewf1                  # filesystem info
fls -r -o <offset> /mnt/ewf/ewf1                  # file list (incl. deleted)
icat -o <offset> /mnt/ewf/ewf1 <inode> > out      # extract by inode

# Or mount as loopback if raw
losetup -fP --read-only disk.raw
# Then mount partitions

# Carve unallocated
photorec
foremost -i disk.raw -o ./carved
scalpel disk.raw                                  # config-driven carving

Browser history: dumpzilla (Firefox), hindsight (Chrome), or query SQLite directly.

NTFS artifacts: MFTECmd, Plaso/log2timeline for super timeline.

Registry: regripper, RegistryExplorer, manual hive parsing with python-registry.

5. File carving / steganographic-adjacent

If forensics challenge but file looks like an image/audio: try ctf-stego skill first. Forensics overlap heavily.

binwalk -e <file>           # extract embedded files
binwalk --dd='.*' <file>    # dump everything
foremost -i <file> -o out

6. Log analysis

# Apache / nginx
goaccess access.log -o report.html

# Windows event logs
EvtxECmd -f Security.evtx --csv ./out
chainsaw hunt -r sigma_rules ./logs

# Generic
zgrep -h "pattern" *.log.gz | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn

7. Don't waste time on

• Manual hex parsing of well-known formats (PNG, ZIP) — use binwalk, foremost, pngcheck
• Reimplementing tshark filters in Python — tshark CLI is faster
• Brute-forcing zip passwords without first checking for known plaintext attack (bkcrack)

After solve

Use the writeup-template skill.