Plugin: Winlogon

The Winlogon plugin is a pretty comprehensive plugin, in that since the RegRipper consolidation release, several plugins have been retired and their functionality incorporated into this one plugin.

The Winlogon plugin is a valuable resource when it comes to determining autostart information for the system.  For example, the UserInit and Shell values point to the shell that is launched when a user logs in.  From here:

The Winlogon key controls actions that occur when you log on to a computer running Windows 7. Most of these actions are under the control of the operating system, but you can also add custom actions here. The “HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Userinit” and “HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell” subkeys can automatically launch programs. 

 MS KB 555648 addresses an issue where either the Shell or Userinit values have been modified.

The Winlogon plugin extracts values and data from beneath the HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon key, as well as it's accompanying Wow6432Node cousin on 64-bit Windows systems, and it also collects information from several subkeys, as well.

This Microsoft page provides additional information about some of the values that appear beneath this key.  Another way that a value beneath this key can be used to subvert the system is to add the TaskMan value, and point to malicious software.

Notify
This subkey maintains a running list of functionality made available to Windows systems via notification packages.  In short, a "package" (DLL) can receive notifications from Windows when certain events occur.  When these events occur, Windows will look for the package and launch the handler for that specific event.  For example, you can have specific functions run automatically when a user logs on, locks the console, when a smartcard is plugged into the system, etc.

As with other functionality on Windows system, this also provides a great mechanism for malware (see this Cutwail example) persistence.

Special Accounts
One of the subkeys that can exist beneath the Winlogon key is the "SpecialAccounts\UserList" subkey.  The values beneath this key, and each value's accompanying data, determines whether or not the specific account appears on the Welcome screen.  Very often, this information is used to for legitimate purposes, so that the screen isn't cluttered with accounts that are not used for logging into the system at the console.  However, this functionality can be, and has been, used for malicious purposes.  I've seen this in the wild, most often when an intruder has accessed an infrastructure via RDP, and creates accounts on systems that they can use to log in; hiding the user account from the Welcome screen prevents legitimate users from seeing anything suspicious when the system is rebooted.  In one instance, I saw this being used, but the "SpecialAccounts" key had been misspelled, so the functionality was not enabled.

The Winlogon plugin encapsulates data from several plugins, which led me to retire those other plugins.  For example, I added the checks from the taskman.pl, notify.pl, and specaccts.pl plugins to the winlogon.pl plugin, and retired those other plugins.  All of this will appear in the history file associated with the next roll-out of the plugin archive.  The output of the winlogon.pl plugin also includes analysis notes, so that the analyst has information right there in the report with respect to what they should look for, and what might be suspicious.

Resources
Winlogon\Nofity entries
MS KB 102972: Explains many of the Winlogon values