Microsoft Word Jump List Tidbit

Performing examinations on the Windows 7 (and possibly 8) operating systems is going to become the norm. In anticipation of this occurring, I’m preparing myself by improving my processes, techniques, and knowledge about the artifacts found on these operating systems. One artifact others brought to my attention but I never tested until recently are Jump Lists (Harlan has an excellent write-up about Jumplist Analysis). I wanted to share a quick tidbit about Microsoft Word’s Jump List.

I knew Jump Lists were a new artifact in Windows 7 which contain information about a user’s activity on a system. I thought the user activity information would resemble something similar to link files showing what files were accessed as well as timestamps. I didn’t fully realize how much more information may be available about a user’s activity in Jump Lists until I started using Harlan’s jl.pl script included with WFA 3/e (my WFA 3/e five star review can be found here). I ran a simple test. Create a Word document and see what information jl.pl parses from Word’s Jump List located in the AutomaticDestinations folder. The following is a snippet from the output:

C:\Export\jumplist-research\AutomaticDestinations\adecfb853d77462a.automaticDestinations-ms

Thu Mar 8 02:20:50 2012 C:\fake-invoice.docx
Thu Mar 8 02:17:20 2012 C:\logo.png
Thu Mar 8 02:17:03 2012 C:\Users\test\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates
C:\Users\test\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates\TP030002465.dotx

Now let’s breakdown the output above. I identified the Microsoft Word 2007 Jump List (adecfb853d77462a.automaticDestinations-ms) using the list of Jump List Ids on the Forensic Wiki. The last entry shows I accessed a document called fake-invoice.docx at 02:20:50 on 03/08/2012. The other two entries contain information that was previously not available when examining link files. The second entry shows I used Microsoft Word to access an image called logo.png 30 seconds before accessing the fake-invoice.docx document. In addition, the third entry shows the first thing I accessed was a Microsoft Office template. The recorded activity in the Jump List shows exactly how I created the document. I first selected a template for an invoice and made a few changes. To make the invoice look real I imported a company’s image before I saved the document for the first time at 02:20:50.

When analyzing user activity prior to Windows 7 we could gather a lot of information about how a document was created. We could use the information to try to show how the document was created but it wasn’t like the play by play found in the Jump List. Microsoft Word records the files imported into a document and this information may be useful for certain types of cases. For me this information is going to be helpful on financial cases where templates are used to create fraudulent documents. Not every Jump List exhibits this behavior though. I tested something similar with PowerPoint and the following snippet shows what was in the Jump List.

C:\Export\jumplist-research\AutomaticDestinations\f5ac5390b9115fdb.automaticDestinations-ms

Thu Mar 8 02:31:03 2012 C:\Users\Public\Videos\Sample Videos
Thu Mar 8 02:30:32 2012 C:\Users\Public\Pictures\Sample Pictures
Thu Mar 8 02:27:46 2012 C:\Users\test\Desktop
C:\Users\test\Desktop\Presentation1.pptx

As the output shows, PowerPoint only records the objects imported down to the folder level. The entries don’t show the video and image’s filenames I added to the presentation. However, Microsoft Word records the filenames and this is something to be aware of going forward because it provides more information about what a user has been doing with the program.

Nothing ground breaking but just something I noticed while testing.