{"id":139,"date":"2025-10-11T05:53:39","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T05:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vinpearl.ca\/?p=139"},"modified":"2025-10-11T16:36:03","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T16:36:03","slug":"investigating-a-suspect-laptop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vinpearl.ca\/index.php\/2025\/10\/11\/investigating-a-suspect-laptop\/","title":{"rendered":"Investigating a Suspect Laptop"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1. <strong>Isolate Immediately<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Disconnect from the network (physically or via switch port shutdown).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Prevent further spread or attacker control.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2. <strong>Preserve Evidence<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Create a <strong>forensic disk image<\/strong> (e.g., using FTK Imager or <code>dd<\/code>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Workflow with SystemRescue:<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Boot into SystemRescue.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Identify source disk: <code>lsblk<\/code> or <code>fdisk -l<\/code><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mount destination: <code>mount \/dev\/sdb1 \/mnt\/usb<\/code><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>dd if=\/dev\/sdX of=\/mnt\/usb\/image.dd bs=64K conv=noerror,sync<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Capture <strong>RAM dump<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>wget https:\/\/github.com\/microsoft\/avml\/releases\/latest\/download\/avml<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>chmod +x avml<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>sudo .\/avml \/mnt\/usb\/memdump.raw<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">3. <strong>Initial Triage<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Check for signs of compromise:\n<ul>\n<li>Unusual processes (<code>tasklist<\/code>, <code>Get-Process<\/code>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Suspicious startup entries (<code>Autoruns<\/code>, <code>HKLM\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Run<\/code>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Unknown scheduled tasks (<code>schtasks \/query<\/code>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rogue services (<code>sc query<\/code>, <code>services.msc<\/code>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Unexpected network connections (<code>netstat -ano<\/code>, <code>Get-NetTCPConnection<\/code>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">4. <strong>Log Analysis<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Review:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Windows Event Logs<\/strong> (<code>Security<\/code>, <code>System<\/code>, <code>Application<\/code>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>PowerShell logs<\/strong> (<code>Microsoft-Windows-PowerShell\/Operational<\/code>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>WMI logs<\/strong> (<code>Microsoft-Windows-WMI-Activity\/Operational<\/code>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Look for:\n<ul>\n<li>Failed logins, privilege escalation<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Script execution, remote access attempts<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>USB device insertions (potential data exfiltration)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">5. <strong>File System &amp; Registry Audit<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Search for:\n<ul>\n<li>Recently modified files in <code>C:\\Users<\/code>, <code>AppData<\/code>, <code>ProgramData<\/code><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Suspicious executables or scripts<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Registry keys under <code>Run<\/code>, <code>RunOnce<\/code>, <code>Services<\/code>, <code>Shell<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">6. <strong>Malware &amp; IOC Scanning<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Use tools like:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Sysinternals Suite<\/strong> (especially <code>Process Explorer<\/code>, <code>TCPView<\/code>, <code>Autoruns<\/code>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>YARA<\/strong> for pattern-based IOC detection<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Velociraptor<\/strong> or <strong>KAPE<\/strong> for rapid triage and artifact collection<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">7. <strong>Network Forensics<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>If available, correlate with:\n<ul>\n<li>Firewall logs (e.g., SonicWall VPN logs)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>DHCP logs (to confirm IP usage)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>DNS logs (to detect C2 beaconing)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>VPN session history (was this laptop the first to connect before the breach?)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">8. <strong>Timeline Reconstruction<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Build a timeline of:\n<ul>\n<li>First signs of compromise<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>User activity<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Malware execution<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lateral movement (e.g., SMB, RDP, WMI)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83d\udee1\ufe0f Final Steps<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Quarantine and reimage<\/strong> if compromise is confirmed.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Report and document<\/strong> findings for compliance and future defense.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Update detection rules<\/strong> (e.g., SIEM, EDR) based on discovered TTPs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1. Isolate Immediately 2. Preserve Evidence Create a forensic disk image (e.g., using FTK Imager or dd). Capture RAM dump 3. Initial Triage 4. Log Analysis 5. File System &amp; Registry Audit 6. Malware &amp; IOC Scanning 7. Network Forensics 8. Timeline Reconstruction \ud83d\udee1\ufe0f Final Steps<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinpearl.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinpearl.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinpearl.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinpearl.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinpearl.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vinpearl.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140,"href":"https:\/\/vinpearl.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions\/140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinpearl.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinpearl.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinpearl.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}