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investigating-windows-endpoints

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Investigate a compromised or suspicious Windows host from on-disk artifacts -- triage collection, evidence of execution (Prefetch, Amcache, Shimcache, SRUM, UserAssist, BAM), the event-log workhorses by ID (Security 4624/4688/4720/7045/1102, Sysmon, PowerShell 4104, RDP, WMI), persistence hunting across every autostart, lateral-movement traces, $MFT/USN filesystem forensics, anti-forensics detection, and building a super-timeline with the Eric Zimmerman suite, Chainsaw, Hayabusa, and Plaso. Use when triaging a compromised or suspicious Windows host, working through EVTX/Sysmon logs, reconstructing what executed on a Windows machine, hunting persistence and lateral-movement traces, or analyzing a KAPE/triage collection.

secskills-defense/skills/investigating-windows-endpoints/SKILL.md

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Sep 4, 2026
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# Investigating Windows Endpoints

Windows records execution, persistence, and access in dozens of artifacts the
attacker rarely cleans completely. The event logs are only the surface -- the
registry, prefetch, amcache, and the file-system journals corroborate or
contradict them. The investigation is cross-referencing independent artifacts
into one timeline that no single cleared log can defeat.

## When to Use

- Triaging a compromised or suspicious Windows host, live or from an image
- Working through a KAPE, Velociraptor, or EDR triage collection
- Reconstructing what executed on a Windows machine and in what order
- Parsing EVTX / Sysmon / PowerShell logs to reconstruct attacker activity
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