Tool: BrowsingHistoryView

A Comprehensive Forensic Tool for Browser History Analysis

BrowsingHistoryView by NirSoft is an indispensable tool for forensic analysts, offering a streamlined interface to analyze browser history across multiple browsers. It simplifies the process of consolidating and reviewing web activity, making it a valuable asset in investigations involving user behavior or potential security incidents.

Key Features of BrowsingHistoryView

1. Multi-Browser Support

  • Compatibility:

    • Works with popular browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Internet Explorer, and Opera.

    • Can analyze data from both live systems and disk images.

2. User-Friendly GUI

  • Displays browser history in a structured table format.

  • Key columns:

    • Visited URLs

    • Page Titles

    • Visit Times

    • Visit Counts

    • User Profiles

    • Web Browser Types

3. Advanced Filtering Options

  • Date and Time Filters:

    • Focus on specific time frames, such as during or before an incident.

  • String Matching Filters:

    • Matching Strings: Include URLs containing specific keywords (e.g., known malicious domains).

    • Non-Matching Strings: Exclude URLs with specific keywords to reduce noise (e.g., common safe domains).

4. User and Profile Selection

  • Enables targeted analysis in multi-user environments or Active Directory setups.

5. Export Options

  • Export results in formats such as CSV, HTML, XML, or tab-delimited files for reporting and further analysis.

Exploring BrowsingHistoryView

Setup and Initial View

Installation:

  • Download from NirSoft’s official website and launch the GUI version.

Advanced Options:

  • Apply filters to refine data collection:

    • Date and Time Filters: Focus on recent or specific periods of browsing activity.

    • String Filters: Target specific keywords or exclude common domains.

Applying Filters

1. Date Filter

  • Example: Display browsing history from the last 10 hours to analyze user activity during a suspected incident.

2. Matching Strings Filter

  • Example: Identify URLs containing keywords like “letsdef” or “facebo”.

    • Displays only URLs matching these patterns.

3. Non-Matching Strings Filter

  • Example: Exclude URLs containing “goog” or “githu” to reduce noise from common domains.

4. Combined Filters

  • Use both matching and non-matching filters to refine results further.

    • Example: Include “letsdef” while excluding “goog”.

Output Analysis

Example Dataset:

URL: https://letsdefend.io  
Title: "LetsDefend - SOC Analyst Training"  
Visit Count: 10  
Last Visit: 2024-11-12 10:00 AM

Insights:

  • Total time spent on specific websites.

  • Redirected traffic sources to malicious domains.

  • User profiles associated with particular browsing activities.

Use Case Scenarios

1. Incident Investigation

  • Goal: Determine if a user visited malicious websites before a security breach.

  • Application: Correlate browsing history with phishing attempts or data exfiltration.

2. Shared Workstations

  • Goal: Analyze web activity for multiple users on a single device.

  • Application: Detect insider threats by filtering sensitive domains or unauthorized data transfers.

Key Points

BrowsingHistoryView is a versatile and efficient tool for consolidating and analyzing browser history. Its intuitive interface, advanced filtering options, and multi-browser support make it an essential part of any forensic toolkit. By leveraging its capabilities, forensic analysts can quickly uncover valuable evidence to support investigations.

In the next lesson, we’ll delve deeper into manual and automated analysis of browser databases to enhance investigative capabilities further.

PreviousBrowser ArtifactsNextManual Browser Analysis

Last updated