# Timelines ## Combining different sources of information --- ## What is a timeline? * It is a way to visualize time based rows from multiple sources. * The main concepts: * `Timeline`: Just a series of rows keyed on a time column. The rows can be anything at all, as long as a single column is specified as the time column and it is sorted by time order. * `Super Timeline`: A grouping of several timelines viewed together on the same timeline. --- ## Timeline workflow * Timelines are created from post processed results from the notebook: 1. Collect a set of artifacts with relevant information: * e.g. MFT entries, Prefetch, Event logs etc. 2. Create a `Supertimeline` to hold all the timelines together. 3. Reduce the data from each artifact source by manipulating the VQL query: * Reduce the number of rows by limiting only interesting rows. * Reduce the columns by adding only important columns. 4. Add the table to the `Super Timeline` by selecting the time column. --- ## Example: Correlating execution with files * Run the following command: ``` curl.exe -o test.ps1 https://www.google.com/ ``` * Collect two sources of evidence: * `Windows.Timeline.Prefetch`: Collects execution times. * `Windows.NTFS.MFT`: Collects filesystem information. * For the sake of the exercise, limit times to the previous day or so. --- ### Example: Correlating execution with files ![](collecting_prefetch_and_mft.png) --- ### Example: Correlating execution with files * We want to reduce the total data in each table to make it easier to see. * Usually a time column and a single other column ![](reducing_table_for_timeline.png) --- ### Example: Correlating execution with files ![](reducing_table_for_timeline_2.png) --- ### Example: Correlating execution with files * Create a super timeline to hold the individual timelines. ![](add_super_timeline.png) --- ### Example: Correlating execution with files ![](new_empty_timeline.png) ![](adding_timeline.png) --- ### Example: Correlating execution with files * Investigating temporal correlation ![](temporal_correlation.png)