Skill v1.0.0
currentAutomated scan100/100name: analyzing-browser-forensics-with-hindsight description: Parse Chromium-based browser databases with Hindsight to extract and correlate browsing history, downloads, cookies, cached content, autofill data, saved passwords, and extensions from Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera, and Vivaldi into a unified timeline (XLSX, JSON, or SQLite output). Use during incident response, insider-threat investigations, or criminal cases when you need to reconstruct a user's web activity from a browser profile. domain: cybersecurity subdomain: digital-forensics tags:
- browser-forensics
- hindsight
- chrome-forensics
- chromium
- edge
- browsing-history
- cookies
- downloads
- cache
- web-artifacts
version: '1.0' author: mahipal license: Apache-2.0 nist_csf:
- RS.AN-03
- DE.AE-02
- RS.MA-01
mitre_attack:
- T1217
- T1539
- T1555.003
- T1185
Analyzing Browser Forensics with Hindsight
Overview
Hindsight is an open-source browser forensics tool designed to parse artifacts from Google Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers (Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi). It extracts and correlates data from multiple browser database files to create a unified timeline of web activity. Hindsight can parse URLs, download history, cache records, bookmarks, autofill records, saved passwords, preferences, browser extensions, HTTP cookies, Local Storage (HTML5 cookies), login data, and session/tab information. The tool produces chronological timelines in multiple output formats (XLSX, JSON, SQLite) that enable investigators to reconstruct user web activity for incident response, insider threat investigations, and criminal cases.
When to Use
- When investigating security incidents that require analyzing browser forensics with hindsight
- When building detection rules or threat hunting queries for this domain
- When SOC analysts need structured procedures for this analysis type
- When validating security monitoring coverage for related attack techniques
Prerequisites
- Python 3.8+ with Hindsight installed (
pip install pyhindsight) - Access to browser profile directories from forensic image
- Browser profile data (not encrypted with OS-level encryption)
- Timeline Explorer or spreadsheet application for analysis
Browser Profile Locations
| Browser | Windows Profile Path | |
|---|---|---|
| Chrome | %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\ | |
| Edge | %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default\ | |
| Brave | %LOCALAPPDATA%\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Default\ | |
| Opera | %APPDATA%\Opera Software\Opera Stable\ | |
| Vivaldi | %LOCALAPPDATA%\Vivaldi\User Data\Default\ | |
| Chrome (macOS) | ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/ | |
| Chrome (Linux) | ~/.config/google-chrome/Default/ |
Key Artifact Files
| File | Contents | |
|---|---|---|
| History | URL visits, downloads, keyword searches | |
| Cookies | HTTP cookies with domain, expiry, values | |
| Web Data | Autofill entries, saved credit cards | |
| Login Data | Saved usernames/passwords (encrypted) | |
| Bookmarks | JSON bookmark tree | |
| Preferences | Browser configuration and extensions | |
| Local Storage/ | HTML5 Local Storage per domain | |
| Session Storage/ | Session-specific storage per domain | |
| Network Action Predictor | Previously typed URLs | |
| Shortcuts | Omnibox shortcuts and predictions | |
| Top Sites | Frequently visited sites |
Running Hindsight
Command Line
# Basic analysis of a Chrome profilehindsight.exe -i "C:\Evidence\Users\suspect\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default" -o C:\Output\chrome_analysis# Specify browser typehindsight.exe -i "/path/to/profile" -o /output/analysis -b Chrome# JSON output formathindsight.exe -i "C:\Evidence\Chrome\Default" -o C:\Output\chrome --format jsonl# With cache parsing (slower but more complete)hindsight.exe -i "C:\Evidence\Chrome\Default" -o C:\Output\chrome --cache
Web UI
# Start Hindsight web interfacehindsight_gui.exe# Navigate to http://localhost:8080# Upload or point to browser profile directory# Configure output format and analysis options# Generate and download report
Artifact Analysis Details
URL History and Visits
-- Chrome History database schema (key tables)-- urls table: id, url, title, visit_count, typed_count, last_visit_time-- visits table: id, url, visit_time, from_visit, transition, segment_id-- Timestamps are Chrome/WebKit format: microseconds since 1601-01-01-- Convert: datetime((visit_time/1000000)-11644473600, 'unixepoch')
Download History
-- downloads table: id, current_path, target_path, start_time, end_time,-- received_bytes, total_bytes, state, danger_type, interrupt_reason,-- url, referrer, tab_url, mime_type, original_mime_type
Cookie Analysis
-- cookies table: creation_utc, host_key, name, value, encrypted_value,-- path, expires_utc, is_secure, is_httponly, last_access_utc,-- has_expires, is_persistent, priority, samesite
Python Analysis Script
import sqlite3import osimport jsonimport sysfrom datetime import datetime, timedeltaCHROME_EPOCH = datetime(1601, 1, 1)def chrome_time_to_datetime(chrome_ts: int):"""Convert Chrome timestamp to datetime."""if chrome_ts == 0:return Nonetry:return CHROME_EPOCH + timedelta(microseconds=chrome_ts)except (OverflowError, OSError):return Nonedef analyze_chrome_history(profile_path: str, output_dir: str) -> dict:"""Analyze Chrome History database for forensic evidence."""history_db = os.path.join(profile_path, "History")if not os.path.exists(history_db):return {"error": "History database not found"}os.makedirs(output_dir, exist_ok=True)conn = sqlite3.connect(f"file:{history_db}?mode=ro", uri=True)# URL visits with timestampscursor = conn.cursor()cursor.execute("""SELECT u.url, u.title, v.visit_time, u.visit_count,v.transition & 0xFF as transition_typeFROM visits v JOIN urls u ON v.url = u.idORDER BY v.visit_time DESC LIMIT 5000""")visits = [{"url": r[0], "title": r[1],"visit_time": str(chrome_time_to_datetime(r[2])),"total_visits": r[3], "transition": r[4]} for r in cursor.fetchall()]# Downloadscursor.execute("""SELECT target_path, tab_url, start_time, end_time,received_bytes, total_bytes, mime_type, stateFROM downloads ORDER BY start_time DESC LIMIT 1000""")downloads = [{"path": r[0], "source_url": r[1],"start_time": str(chrome_time_to_datetime(r[2])),"end_time": str(chrome_time_to_datetime(r[3])),"received_bytes": r[4], "total_bytes": r[5],"mime_type": r[6], "state": r[7]} for r in cursor.fetchall()]# Keyword searchescursor.execute("""SELECT k.term, u.url, k.url_idFROM keyword_search_terms k JOIN urls u ON k.url_id = u.idORDER BY u.last_visit_time DESC LIMIT 1000""")searches = [{"term": r[0], "url": r[1]} for r in cursor.fetchall()]conn.close()report = {"analysis_timestamp": datetime.now().isoformat(),"profile_path": profile_path,"total_visits": len(visits),"total_downloads": len(downloads),"total_searches": len(searches),"visits": visits,"downloads": downloads,"searches": searches}report_path = os.path.join(output_dir, "browser_forensics.json")with open(report_path, "w") as f:json.dump(report, f, indent=2)return reportdef main():if len(sys.argv) < 3:print("Usage: python process.py <chrome_profile_path> <output_dir>")sys.exit(1)analyze_chrome_history(sys.argv[1], sys.argv[2])if __name__ == "__main__":main()
References
- Hindsight GitHub: https://github.com/obsidianforensics/hindsight
- Chrome Forensics Guide: https://allenace.medium.com/hindsight-chrome-forensics-made-simple-425db99fa5ed
- Browser Forensics Tools: https://www.cyberforensicacademy.com/blog/browser-forensics-tools-how-to-extract-user-activity
- Chromium Source (History): https://source.chromium.org/chromium/chromium/src/+/main:components/history/
Example Output
$ python hindsight.py -i /evidence/chrome-profile -o /analysis/hindsight_outputHindsight v2024.01 - Chrome/Chromium Browser Forensic Analysis================================================================Profile: /evidence/chrome-profile (Chrome 120.0.6099.130)OS: Windows 10[+] Parsing History database...URL records: 12,456Download records: 234Search terms: 567[+] Parsing Cookies database...Cookie records: 8,923Encrypted cookies: 6,712[+] Parsing Web Data (Autofill)...Autofill entries: 1,234Credit card entries: 2 (encrypted)[+] Parsing Login Data...Saved credentials: 45 (encrypted)[+] Parsing Bookmarks...Bookmark entries: 189--- Browsing History (Last 10 Entries) ---Timestamp (UTC) | URL | Title | Visit Count2024-01-15 14:32:05.123 | https://mail.corporate.com/inbox | Corporate Mail | 452024-01-15 14:33:12.456 | https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aBcDe... | Q4_Financial_Report.xlsx | 12024-01-15 14:35:44.789 | https://mega.nz/folder/xYz123 | MEGA - Secure Cloud | 32024-01-15 14:36:01.234 | https://mega.nz/folder/xYz123#upload | MEGA - Upload | 82024-01-15 14:42:15.567 | https://pastebin.com/raw/kL9mN2pQ | Pastebin (raw) | 12024-01-15 15:01:33.890 | https://192.168.1.50:8443/admin | Admin Panel | 122024-01-15 15:15:22.111 | https://transfer.sh/upload | transfer.sh | 22024-01-15 15:30:45.222 | https://vpn-gateway.corporate.com | VPN Login | 52024-01-15 16:00:00.333 | https://whatismyipaddress.com | What Is My IP | 12024-01-15 16:05:12.444 | https://protonmail.com/inbox | ProtonMail | 3--- Downloads (Suspicious) ---Timestamp (UTC) | Filename | URL Source | Size2024-01-15 14:33:15.000 | Q4_Financial_Report.xlsm | https://phish-domain.com/docs/report | 245 KB2024-01-15 14:34:02.000 | update_client.exe | https://cdn.evil-updates.com/client.exe | 1.2 MB--- Cookies (Session Tokens) ---Domain | Name | Expires | Secure | HttpOnly.corporate.com | SESSION_ID | 2024-01-16 14:32 | Yes | Yes.mega.nz | session | Session | Yes | Yes.protonmail.com | AUTH-TOKEN | 2024-02-15 00:00 | Yes | YesReport saved to: /analysis/hindsight_output/Hindsight_Report.xlsx