Detection of Backdating the System Clock in Windows

SANS Institute has published a whitepaper by Xiaoxi Fan titled “Detection of Backdating the System Clock in Windows”. This paper presents three categories of related objects, showing how they work together in detecting system clock backdating: (1) system artifacts (e.g. Windows event log, $MFT, $Logfile, $UsnJrnl, Volume Shadow Copy, $STDINFO and $FILENAME timestamps, and Windows update logs); (2) application artifacts (e.g. antivirus update log and cloud storage sync log); and (3) Internet artifacts (e.g. Internet history and email). The paper intends to put together these artifacts and serve as a reference for investigators to detect system clock backdating.