A high-speed forensic processing engine built for DFIR investigators. Quickly consolidate CSV output from top-tier triage tools into a unified mini timeline with built-in filtering, artifact detection, date filtering, keyword tagging, and deduplication.

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Release

Forensic Timeliner v2.2 – Release Notes

✨ New Features

• Interactive Menu Enhancements

  • Added prompts to display filter configuration for:
    • MFT (timestamp, path, and extension filters)
    • Event Logs (channel and provider filters)
    • Keyword tagging rules from keywords.yaml
  • Prompts now appear automatically if EZ Tools is selected and config files are present.
  • Filter previews are displayed as rich tables using Spectre.Console.

• Keyword Tagging Support for TLE

  • New interactive option to enable the Timeline Explorer keyword tagger.
  • Generates a .tle_sess file with tagged rows based on user-defined keyword groups.
  • Interactive preview of keyword groups before enabling.

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Table of Contents

• Main Features
• Quick Start
• Downloads
• Screenshots
• Command Line Arguments
• Timeline Output
• Yaml Config
• Tool Documentation
• Usage Guide
• Artifact and Output Support Table
• License

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Main Features

-Combine csv output from

• EZ Tools / Kape

• Axiom

• Chainsaw

• Hayabusa

• Nirsoft

• output data into a unified timeline

• Automatic CSV discovery from triage directories (all configurable) with YAML

  • Yaml files already use default namings for tools with default output
  • For tools like Hayabusa where you can set the file output name you should name the file some variaition of Hayabusa.csv and put it in a folder named Hayabusa
  • Simply provide the base directory of where the triage output lives and the tool will attempt to discover the csv files based on
  • File Name
  • Folder Name
  • File Headers
  • For Event Logs Channel\Provider Filters
  • For MFT File Extension and Path Filters

• Timeline enrichment with with keyword tagging for use with Timeline Explorer. Automatically create a TLE session file based on keyword searching for CSV output.

• RFC-4180-compliant export for compatibility with tools like Timeline Explorer

• Date filtering and deduplication controls

• Interactive Setup and Yaml Discovery Preview

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Quick Start

TL;DR! Get some Kape/EZ Forensic Output

Download the exe and run:

ForensicTimeliner.exe --Interactive

ForensicTimeliner.exe --BaseDir C:\triage\hostname --ALL --OutputFile C:\timeline.csv

.\ForensicTimeliner.exe --ProcessEZ --BaseDir "C:\Users\admin0x\Desktop\sample_data\host_t800" --OutputFile "C:\Users\admin0x\Desktop\test" --ExportFormat csv --EnableTagger

• Open TLE Session file from your output directory. If you move the file you need to updste the session file path.

• Use default naming for your csv files and make sure they are inside the base directory you set. There is a fallback to auto discover csv files based on file headers, or adjust the filename in the YAML settings.

• Use the --EnableTagger feature view command line to build a Timeline Explorer session file based on keyword tagging. Adjust keywords in config\keywords\keywords.yaml

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Downloads

Latest Release: v2.2

Download sample data for testing purposes here.

Sample Data

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Screenshots

Interactive Menu

Timeline Explorer Support

• Auto coloring applied in TLE with latest plugin files
• Automatically Build a TLE Session File with tagged rows based on keywords
  • Edit the Keywords config file and add your keywords
  • Run ForensicTimeliner.exe from the command line using the --EnableTagger flag

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Command Line Arguments

Argument	Type	Default	Description
--BaseDir	string	C:\triage	Root directory to recursively search for supported artifact CSVs
--OutputFile	string	"timeline.csv"	Output file or folder for exported timeline
--ExportFormat	string	csv	Export format: csv, json, or jsonl
--StartDate	datetime	null	Filter: only include rows after this date
--EndDate	datetime	null	Filter: only include rows before this date
--Deduplicate / -d	bool	false	Remove duplicate timeline rows after export
--EnableTagger	bool	false	Enables keyword-based tagging via config/keywords/keywords.yaml
--IncludeRawData	bool	false	Adds a RawData column for unmodified source row contents (if available) experimental
--NoBanner	bool	false	Skip printing the banner/logo at start
--Help / -h	bool	false	Show help and usage information
--ALL / -a	bool	false	Process all tools listed below (based on discovery)
--Interactive / -i	bool	false	Launch an interactive CLI to build a custom command
--ProcessEZ	bool	false	Enable EZ Tools artifact parsing
--ProcessAxiom	bool	false	Enable Axiom artifact parsing
--ProcessChainsaw	bool	false	Enable Chainsaw artifact parsing
--ProcessHayabusa	bool	false	Enable Hayabusa artifact parsing
--ProcessNirsoft	bool	false	Enable Nirsoft artifact parsing

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Timeline Output Field Structure

🧾 Timeline Output Field Structure All output is exported as RFC-4180-compliant CSV and ready for review in Timeline Explorer, Excel, or other forensic tools.

Each timeline entry includes the following fields:

DateTime,TimestampInfo,ArtifactName,Tool,Description,DataDetails,DataPath,FileExtension,EventId,User,Computer,FileSize,IPAddress,SourceAddress,DestinationAddress,SHA1,Count,EvidencePath

YAML Config

Timeline parsers can be customized using per-artifact YAML definitions. These control:

• Artifact discovery (filename_patterns, foldername_patterns, etc.)
• Filtering (event_channel_filters, provider_filters, paths, extensions)
• Timestamp mapping (timestamp_fields) ** MFT Only
• Optional overrides (ignore_filters) ** MFT & Event Logs
  • Set ignore_filters: true to skip all filters for MFT and Event Logs.

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📚 Tool Output Processing Documentation

Detailed documentation for each supported tool showing how artifacts are parsed and mapped to the unified timeline format:

Supported Tools

• EZ Tools - Comprehensive Windows artifact analysis (Activity Timeline, Amcache, AppCompatCache, Event Logs, JumpLists, LNK Files, MFT, Prefetch, Registry, Shellbags, UserAssist, and more)
• Hayabusa - Sigma-based Windows event log analysis and threat hunting
• Chainsaw - MITRE ATT&CK focused event log analysis (Account Tampering, Credential Access, Lateral Movement, Persistence, PowerShell, and more)
• Axiom - Magnet Forensics comprehensive artifact extraction (Web History, Prefetch, Registry, File System, and more)
• Nirsoft - Cross-browser history analysis and Windows utility artifacts

Each documentation page includes:

• Field Mapping Tables - How source CSV fields map to timeline format
• Special Behaviors - Unique processing logic and features
• Expected CSV Format - Required input format and structure
• Integration Notes - Tips for optimal usage and file organization

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Event Log Filters

Define EventChannelFilters per channel in your YAML configuration as seen below. Spport for [] to include an entire event log as needed.

event_channel_filters:
  Application: []
  Microsoft-Windows-PowerShell/Operational: [4100, 4103, 4104]
  Microsoft-Windows-RemoteDesktopServices-RdpCoreTS/Operational: [72, 98, 104, 131, 140]
  Microsoft-Windows-TerminalServices-LocalSessionManager/Operational: [21, 22]
  Microsoft-Windows-TerminalServices-RemoteConnectionManager/Operational: [261, 1149]
  Microsoft-Windows-TaskScheduler/Operational: [106, 140, 141, 129, 200, 201]
  Microsoft-Windows-WinRM/Operational: [169]
  SentinelOne/Operational: [1, 31, 55, 57, 67, 68, 77, 81, 93, 97, 100, 101, 104, 110]
  Security: [1102, 4624, 4625, 4648, 4698, 4702, 4720, 4722, 4723, 4724, 4725, 4726, 4732, 4756]
  System: [7045]

provider_filters:
    edgeupdate: [0]
    SentinelHelperService: [0]
    brave: [0]
    Edge: [256]
    SentinelOne: [1, 31, 55, 57, 67, 68, 77, 81] 

MFT Processing and Filtering MFT parsing includes automatic timestamp normalization and extension/path filtering.

By default, only Created0x10 timestamps are included to focus on file creation events and limit the overall timeline size

Default filters:

DEFAULT_EXTENSIONS = [".identifier", ".exe", ".ps1", ".zip", ".rar", ".7z"]
DEFAULT_PATHS = ["Users"]

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Artifact and Output Support Table

Artifact	Supported Tool(s)	Example Filename(s)
Amcache	EZ Tools, Axiom	UnAssociatedFileEntries.csv, AssociatedFileEntries.csv, AmCache File Entries.csv
AppCompatCache	EZ Tools, Axiom	AppCompatCache.csv, Shim Cache.csv
AutoRuns	Axiom	Autorun Items.csv
Chrome History	Axiom	Chrome Web History.csv
Deleted Files	EZ Tools	RBCmd_Output.csv
Edge History	Axiom	Edge Web Visits.csv, Edge Web History.csv
Event Logs	EZ Tools, Axiom	_EvtxECmd_Output.csv, Windows Event Logs.csv
Firefox History	Axiom	Firefox Web Visits.csv
IE History	Axiom	Edge-Internet Explorer 10-11 Main History.csv
JumpLists	EZ Tools, Axiom	AutomaticDestinations.csv, Jump Lists.csv
LNK Files	EZ Tools, Axiom	_LECmd_Output.csv, LNK Files.csv
MFT	EZ Tools, Chainsaw	MFTECmd$MFT_Output.csv, mft.csv
MRU Folder Access	Axiom	MRU Folder Access.csv
MRU Opened/Saved Files	Axiom	MRU Opened-Saved Files.csv
MRU Recent Files & Folders	Axiom	MRU Recent Files & Folders.csv
Opera History	Axiom	Opera Web Visits.csv
Persistence	Chainsaw	persistence.csv
Prefetch	EZ Tools, Axiom	_PECmd_Output.csv, Prefetch Files - Windows 8-10-11.csv
PowerShell Execution	Chainsaw	powershell.csv, powershell_script.csv
RDP Events	Chainsaw	rdp_events.csv
Recycle Bin	Axiom	Recycle Bin.csv
Registry	EZ Tools	_RECmd_Batch_Kroll_Batch_Output.csv
Service Installation	Chainsaw	service_installation.csv
Service Tampering	Chainsaw	service_tampering.csv
Shellbags	EZ Tools, Axiom	_UsrClass.csv, Shellbags.csv
Sigma Rule Matches	Chainsaw	sigma.csv
UserAssist	EZ Tools, Axiom	UserAssist.csv
TypedUrls	EZ Tools	*__TypedURLS__NTUSER.CSV
Threat Events (Chainsaw)	Chainsaw	account_tampering.csv, defense_evasion.csv, credential_access.csv
Web Browsing History	Nirsoft, Axiom	WebResults.csv, Chrome/Firefox/Edge History.csv
VPN / RAS Logs	Chainsaw	microsoft_rasvpn_events.csv, microsoft_rds_events.csv
Login Attacks	Chainsaw	login_attacks.csv
Log Tampering	Chainsaw	log_tampering.csv
Antivirus Detections	Chainsaw	antivirus.csv
Applocker Events	Chainsaw	applocker.csv
Indicator Removal	Chainsaw	indicator_removal.csv
Lateral Movement	Chainsaw	lateral_movement.csv

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License

MIT License

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