Host-based forensics
In the context of the cloud, a host refers to a virtual or physical machine that runs user applications and serves as an endpoint for user and application activities. It can be an individual server, a virtual machine, or a container, depending on the specific cloud model being utilized. While in traditional on-premises scenarios, a host would often refer to a tangible physical server or machine, in the cloud, hosts can be ephemeral and rapidly spun up or down based on the demand and requirements.
Important note
In this chapter, we will concentrate on Windows-based systems. Linux systems will have different host-based artifacts that can be collected and analyzed.
Host-based forensics in the cloud focuses on retrieving and analyzing data from these individual hosts or endpoints, aiming to identify signs of intrusions, lateral movements, malicious code executions, and other TTPs. Given that a host is the primary point of execution for applications and often...
