Many important files within Microsoft Windows have structures that are Undocumented. One of the principals of computer forensics is that all analysis methodologies must be well documented and repeatable, and they must have an acceptable margin of error. Currently, there are a lack of open source methods and tools that forensic analysts can rely upon to examine the data found in proprietary Microsoft files.
Many computer crime investigations require the reconstruction of a subject's internet activity. Since this analysis technique is executed regularly, we researched the structure of the data found in Internet Explorer activity files (index.dat files). Pasco, the latin word meaning "browse", was developed to examine the contents of Internet Explorer's cache files. The foundation of Pasco's examination methodology is presented in the white paper located here. Pasco will parse the information in an index.dat file and output the results in a field delimited manner so that it may be imported into your favorite Spreadsheet program. Pasco is built to work on multiple platforms and will execute on Windows (through Cygwin), Mac OS X, Linux, and *BSD platforms.
