Andreas,
I agree that UTC is probably the best option for standardizing time. I
remember Scudette and I having all kinds of problems with temporal
information when we were working on the DFRWS Challenge.
At one point, Scudette and I were discussing adding a configuration file
but a command line option could be an option.
I also think a standardized output format is probably a good idea as well.
This would be an extremely useful endeavor.
Thanks,
AW
On Wed, 8 Jul 2009, Jesse Kornblum wrote:
I favor UTC time stamps for everything, but I do like
to see the system's
time zone (and thus the local time) at least once.
On Jul 6, 2009, at 8:15 AM, Andreas Schuster wrote:
Dear developers,
I noticed that Volatility displays dates and times in up to three different
timezones:
1. UTC (e.g. pslist, sockets, and the corresponding scanner modules)
2. local time of the system under examination (e.g. datetime, ident
commands)
3. local time of the examiner's workstation (when using ctime() for
formatting)
I usually prefer UTC, especially when I have to consolidate timelines
across systems that are distributed across different timezones. Using the
local time may be a good choice when dealing with less-technical people.
So, I don't think there's a "best" option and propose to let the user
decide about the timezone that best suits his/her needs. The handling (and
output format) should be consistent to avoid any misinterpretation and
confusion.
In order to provide a consistent interface to users and programmers, I
propose to add functions to the framework (or to modify existing functions,
respectively):
- to switch between the three options in a consistent way (i.e. add an
option to the standard parser)
- to read timestamps in all applicable formats (mostly KSYSTEM_TIME, but
also LARGE_INTEGER with bit shifting) from buffers and address spaces (see
forensics/win32/datetime.py)
- to produce the timestamp in an easy to read, unambiguous, and sortable
format (preferably in accordance with ISO 8601)
Before I start with coding, I want to hear your opinion on this. I
appreciate any comments.
Thanks!
Andreas
_______________________________________________
Vol-dev mailing list
Vol-dev(a)volatilityfoundation.org
http://lists.volatilityfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/vol-dev
--
Jesse
research(a)jessekornblum.com
_______________________________________________
Vol-dev mailing list
Vol-dev(a)volatilityfoundation.org
http://lists.volatilityfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/vol-dev