The NTFS USN Change journal is a volume-specific log which records metadata changes to files. It is a treasure trove of information during a forensic investigation. The change journal is a named alternate data stream, located at: $Extend$UsnJrnl:$J. usn.py is a script written in Python which parses the journal's contents, and features several different output formats. Default Output With no command-line options set, usn.py will produce USN journal records in the format below: dev@computer:$ python usn.py -f usnjournal -o /tmp/usn.txt dev@computer:$ cat /tmp/usn.txt 2016-01-26 18:56:20.046268 | test.vbs | ARCHIVE | DATA_OVERWRITE DATA_EXTEND Command-Line Options optional arguments: -h, --help show this help message and exit -b, --body Return USN records in comma-separated format -c, --csv Return USN records in comma-separated format -f FILE, --file FILE Parse the given USN journal file -q, --quick Parse a large journal file quickly -s SYSTEM, --system SYSTEM System name (use with -t) -t, --tln TLN output (use with -s) -v, --verbose Return all USN properties for each record (JSON) --csv Using the CSV f
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