rifiuti2 - MS Windows recycle bin analysis tool
rifiuti [-hvz] [-x | [-8n] [-t
delim]] [-l codepage] [-o outfile]
filename
rifiuti-vista [-hvz] [-x | [-8n]
[-t delim]] [-o outfile]
file_or_directory
Rifiuti2 analyse recycle bin files from Windows. Analysis of
Windows recycle bin is usually carried out during Windows computer
forensics. Rifiuti2 can extract file deletion time, original path and size
of deleted files and whether the deleted files have been moved out from the
recycle bin since they are trashed.
Rifiuti2 supports a wide range of Windows versions, from Windows
98 to Windows 10. The command used for analysis depends on the version of
Windows producing the recycle bin (not the version of users´
system!), which uses vastly different format before and after
Vista:
- •
- rifiuti-vista: For Vista or later, which is located in
\$Recycle.bin\<SID>\. Each deleted file has
its own accompanied index file remembering the original path, file
size and deletion time. If original file is permanentsly deleted,
so is the index file.
- •
- rifiuti: For Windows 98 to XP, which uses a single index file
named INFO2 under either \RECYCLED\ or
\RECYCLER\<SID>\ (depending on
filesystem). This file keeps track record for deletion status and
info for all deleted items, including those
permanently removed or restored.
By default, both programs dump tab-delimited fields on screen,
which can be viewed on screen or imported into spreadsheet program.
-x option instructs program to dump XML formatted content
instead.
Index field has different meaning for pre-Vista and post-Vista
versions. INFO2 has an index number for each of deletion item indicating the
chronological order of items. For Vista version, it means the index file
name instead, which matches pattern
“$Ixxxxxx.<ext>”, where x is random
alphanumeric character.
Deleted time is represented in UTC time by default. Under
tab-delimited mode, the original date/time format is preserved, while in XML
mode ISO 8601 date/time format is used. For example, 3PM at 2014
X´mas represented in these modes would be respectively:
2014-12-25 15:00:00
2014-12-25T15:00:00Z
It would be easier for spreadsheet programs to interpret first format.
File size and file path are self-explanatory, but there are some
special notes. File size can mean the real size of deleted file, or the
cluster size it occupies on filesystem, depending on recycle bin format.
File path might not always be displayable on local system because it might
contain characters from other localized version of Windows.
- -o,
--output=FILE
- Write output to FILE.
- -x, --xml
- Output in XML format instead of tab-delimited values. With XML mode, all
plain text options are disallowed, and result is always in UTF-8 encoding.
See below for plain text options.
- -l,
--legacy-filename=CODEPAGE
- Show legacy filename if available (like
“D:\Progra~1\”), and specify the CODEPAGE used in
the Windows system producing this INFO2 file. Any encodings
supported by iconv(1) can be used, though for maximum
accuracy of file name results, it is better to stick with Microsoft
codepages (such as CP850 or CP1252 for west European version, CP932
for Japanese, etc).
Note: This option is mandatory if INFO2 file is
created by Windows 98. This option does not exist in
rifiuti-vista.
- -z,
--localtime
- Present deletion time in numeric time zone of local system running the
program. By default, UTC time is displayed, which is the time value
recorded in index files. Using the X´mas example above, the time
for Berlin (without daylight saving time) would be
2014-12-25T16:00:00+0100 in ISO 8601 format.
Note: It is possible to use any timezone of
users´ choice by setting $TZ environment variable, though not
recommended. See ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE section below.
- -t,
--delimiter=STRING
- String to use as delimiter (TAB by default). Several escaped characters
are recognised: \r (CARRIAGE RETURN), \n (NEW LINE), \t (TAB), \f (FORM
FEED), \v (VERTICAL TAB), \e (ESCAPE)
- -n,
--no-heading
- Don´t show recycle bin path name, version and header for each
field
- -8, --always-utf8
- Always display result in UTF-8 encoding
- rifiuti-vista -x -z -o result.xml \case\S-1-2-3\
Scan for index files under \case\S-1-2-3\, adjust all
deletion time for local time zone, and write XML output to result.xml
- rifiuti-vista -n -8 \case\S-1-2-3\
- Show tab-delimited result on screen in UTF-8 encoding without header
- rifiuti-vista -t '\r\n' \case\S-1-2-3\$IF96NJ3.rtf
- Only analyse a single index file and print each field in its own line
- rifiuti -t ',' -o result.csv INFO2
- Change tab-delimited result to comma-delimited and write to
result.csv
- rifiuti -l CP1255 -8 -n INFO2
Read INFO2 from Hebrew version of Windows, display 8.3
file names on screen in UTF-8 encoding without header
The following environment variables affect execution of
program:
- CHARSET,
LC_CTYPE
If recycle bin path contains non-ASCII character, these
variables affect how they are displayed. UTF-8 capable systems are recommended
to set CHARSET=UTF-8 or use appropriate UTF-8 values for
LC_CTYPE explicitly, otherwise path might be displayed in Universal
Character Name sequences like \u1234.
- RIFIUTI_DEBUG
Setting it to any non-empty value would cause programs to
print more debugging output to stderr.
- TZ
If non-empty, indicate user-specified time zone when
-z option is used. Normally the time zone information is obtained from
system and there is no need to set this variable. However, it can be used as a
facility to temporarily override timezone for some programs, which can be used
for situations like constructing timeline event.
This value is OS dependent. For example, for timezone in Los
Angeles, the value for Windows is “PST8PDT”, while
corresponding value on Linux would be “America/Los_Angeles”.
Please consult manual for your operating system for more info.
Please see BUGS section below for problems when using this
variable.
Both programs return 0 on success, and >0 if error occurs.
However rifiuti-vista is more permissive: it still returns
success if some (not all) of index files are
invalid.
Rifiuti2 is a rewrite of rifiuti, a tool of
identical purpose written by Foundstone which was later purchased by McAfee.
Quoting from the original FoundStone page:
Many computer crime investigations require the
reconstruction of a subject´s Recycle Bin. Since this analysis
technique is executed regularly, we researched the structure of the data found
in the Recycle Bin repository files (INFO2 files). Rifiuti, the Italian word
meaning "trash", was developed to examine the contents of the INFO2
file in the Recycle Bin. ... Rifiuti is built to work on multiple platforms
and will execute on Windows (through Cygwin), Mac OS X, Linux, and *BSD
platforms.
However, since the original rifiuti (last updated 2004)
can´t analyze recycle bin from any localized version of Windows
(restricted to English), this rewrite effort is born to overcome the
limitation. Later rifiuti2 was improved to add support for Vista format
recycle bin, XML output and other extra features not available from original
version.
In very special circumstance (which author can´t reproduce
now), index file of certain deleted item can be corrupt, causing incorrect
deleted file size to be stored. There is no way to report correct size. This
problem shouldn´t happen after Vista though.
Handling of non-ASCII file argument is not satisfactory; it may
not work in certain case under MinGW bash.
Non-ASCII deleted item path name may not be always displayed
appropriately, especially on systems with non-UTF-8 locale (such as Windows
cmd, where output is restricted to ANSI codepages). Storing UTF-8
result into file with -8 or -x option and then opening it with
Unicode capable editor could be a solution.
The calculation of local time might not be correct. For example,
documentation of _tzset() function on Windows has this statement:
The C run-time library assumes the United States´
rules for implementing the calculation of daylight saving time (DST).
Therefore the time might not be correct in case the files inside recycle bin are
produced on Windows using other countries as region settings. Besides, the
difference between standard time and DST is hardcoded to be one hour, which is
incorrect for a few selected regions.
So it is always better to use UTC time whenever possible.
Report bugs to
- https://github.com/abelcheung/rifiuti2/issues
Information about rifiuti2 can be found on
- https://abelcheung.github.io/rifiuti2/
Part of the work of rifiuti2 is derived from Rifiuti. Both pieces
of software are licensed under the simplified BSD license.
The main author of rifiuti2 is Abel Cheung
<abelcheung@gmail.com>
The original author of rifiuti is Keith J. Jones
<keith.jones@foundstone.com>
Anthony Wong <ypwong@debian.org> helped in Debian
packaging and was author of the original manpage.