Windows 10 Prefetch (native) Decompress

w10pfdecomp.py

#!/usr/bin/python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
#
# Copyright 2015, Francesco "dfirfpi" Picasso <francesco.picasso@gmail.com>
#
# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
# You may obtain a copy of the License at
#
#    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
#
# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
# limitations under the License.
#
"""Python Windows-only utility to decompress MAM compressed files."""

import binascii
import ctypes
import struct
import sys


def tohex(val, nbits):
    """Utility to convert (signed) integer to hex."""
    return hex((val + (1 << nbits)) % (1 << nbits))

def main():
    """Utility core."""
    if len(sys.argv) != 3:
        sys.exit('Missing params [win10compressed.pf] [win10decompressed.pf]')

    NULL = ctypes.POINTER(ctypes.c_uint)()
    SIZE_T = ctypes.c_uint
    DWORD = ctypes.c_uint32
    USHORT = ctypes.c_uint16
    UCHAR  = ctypes.c_ubyte
    ULONG = ctypes.c_uint32

    # You must have at least Windows 8, or it should fail.
    try:
        RtlDecompressBufferEx = ctypes.windll.ntdll.RtlDecompressBufferEx
    except AttributeError:
        sys.exit('You must have Windows with version >=8.')

    RtlGetCompressionWorkSpaceSize = \
        ctypes.windll.ntdll.RtlGetCompressionWorkSpaceSize

    with open(sys.argv[1], 'rb') as fin:
        header = fin.read(8)
        compressed = fin.read()

        signature, decompressed_size = struct.unpack('<LL', header)
        calgo = (signature & 0x0F000000) >> 24
        crcck = (signature & 0xF0000000) >> 28
        magic = signature & 0x00FFFFFF
        if magic != 0x004d414d :
            sys.exit('Wrong signature... wrong file?')

        if crcck:
            # I could have used RtlComputeCrc32.
            file_crc = struct.unpack('<L', compressed[:4])[0]
            crc = binascii.crc32(header)
            crc = binascii.crc32(struct.pack('<L',0), crc)
            compressed = compressed[4:]
            crc = binascii.crc32(compressed, crc)          
            if crc != file_crc:
                sys.exit('Wrong file CRC {0:x} - {1:x}!'.format(crc, file_crc))

        compressed_size = len(compressed)

        ntCompressBufferWorkSpaceSize = ULONG()
        ntCompressFragmentWorkSpaceSize = ULONG()

        ntstatus = RtlGetCompressionWorkSpaceSize(USHORT(calgo),
            ctypes.byref(ntCompressBufferWorkSpaceSize),
            ctypes.byref(ntCompressFragmentWorkSpaceSize))

        if ntstatus:
            sys.exit('Cannot get workspace size, err: {}'.format(
                tohex(ntstatus, 32)))
                
        ntCompressed = (UCHAR * compressed_size).from_buffer_copy(compressed)
        ntDecompressed = (UCHAR * decompressed_size)()
        ntFinalUncompressedSize = ULONG()
        ntWorkspace = (UCHAR * ntCompressFragmentWorkSpaceSize.value)()
        
        ntstatus = RtlDecompressBufferEx(
            USHORT(calgo),
            ctypes.byref(ntDecompressed),
            ULONG(decompressed_size),
            ctypes.byref(ntCompressed),
            ULONG(compressed_size),
            ctypes.byref(ntFinalUncompressedSize),
            ctypes.byref(ntWorkspace))

        if ntstatus:
            sys.exit('Decompression failed, err: {}'.format(
                tohex(ntstatus, 32)))

        if ntFinalUncompressedSize.value != decompressed_size:
            print 'Decompressed with a different size than original!'

        with open(sys.argv[2], 'wb') as fout:
            fout.write(bytearray(ntDecompressed))

        print 'Lucky man, you have your prefetch file ready to be parsed!'

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Hi @Kirtar22,
ahum, are you able to execute the script without any param? You should receive the output
'Missing params [win10compressed.pf] [win10decompressed.pf]'

Note that you don't need '[]' when specifying parameters.

Hi Fransesco,

Great Work, man !! I am trying to decompress prefetch file on Win10 machine with Python Version 2 using your script. I tried following command

w10pfdecomp.py CMD.EXE-6D6290C5.pf c:\temp\cmd.pf

w10pfdecomp.py [CMD.EXE-6D6290C5.pf] [c:\temp\cmd.pf]

did not work for me. A new command window flickers and then nothing happens. Can you please help?

Thanks and once gain appreciate your good work.

Regards

Hi @Kirtar22,
ahum, are you able to execute the script without any param? You should receive the output
'Missing params [win10compressed.pf] [win10decompressed.pf]'

Note that you don't need '[]' when specifying parameters.

Hi Fransesco,
Great Work, man !! I am trying to decompress prefetch file on Win10 machine with Python Version 2 using your script. I tried following command
w10pfdecomp.py CMD.EXE-6D6290C5.pf c:\temp\cmd.pf
w10pfdecomp.py [CMD.EXE-6D6290C5.pf] [c:\temp\cmd.pf]
did not work for me. A new command window flickers and then nothing happens. Can you please help?
Thanks and once gain appreciate your good work.
Regards

Hi @dfirfpi,

Thanks a lot for your answer. I have tried to run it with Python2 with a bash installed on my Windows10 box.

python2 w10pfdecomp.py /mnt/c/Windows/Prefetch/CMD.EXE-6D6290C5.pf /mnt/c/temp/cmd.pf

You must have Windows with version >=8.

The output says that I need to have windows version >8 however I am running this coed on Win10.

Regards,

Kirtar

@dfirfpi

and yes, I get the message as you mentioned if I run the program without any parameters. Please see below

python2 w10pfdecomp.py

Missing params [win10compressed.pf] [win10decompressed.pf]

Did you solve the issue @Kirtar22?

So Im trying to decompress a .png that for some reason has MAM encoding, or appears to. I keep getting errors with the script, but did a sanity check with a file from c:\windows\prefetch and that worked. The specific error code is: 0xc0000242L

@DJP89 don't know about the PNG, most likely you will need to adjust the script.

Hi @dfirfpi, I'm doing some prefetch research as part of some postgrad study and found your super helpful tool. Thank you!

I had a minor issue getting it running on Python 3.10.4. To get it working I just modified the code to enclose the print commands at row 104 and 109 with parenthesis as per below.

    if ntFinalUncompressedSize.value != decompressed_size:
        print ('Decompressed with a different size than original!')

    with open(sys.argv[2], 'wb') as fout:
        fout.write(bytearray(ntDecompressed))

    print ('Lucky man, you have your prefetch file ready to be parsed!')

Running Python 3.9.16 on Cygwin 3.4.6 on Win10.0.19045.2965 x64.

To accommodate the possibility of running non-Windows-native Python and load the ntdll.dll library. I modified the try ... RtlDecompressBufferEx block as follows:

try:
	RtlDecompressBufferEx = ctypes.windll.ntdll.RtlDecompressBufferEx
	RtlGetCompressionWorkSpaceSize = \
		ctypes.windll.ntdll.RtlGetCompressionWorkSpaceSize
except AttributeError:
	#sys.exit('You must have Windows with version >=8.')

	# Handle running non-Windows-native Python.
	try:
		ntdll =  ctypes.CDLL("ntdll.dll")
	except Exception as e:
		print(type(e).__name__ + ": " + str(e), file=sys.stderr)
		exit(1)
	else:
		RtlDecompressBufferEx = ntdll.RtlDecompressBufferEx
		RtlGetCompressionWorkSpaceSize = ntdll.RtlGetCompressionWorkSpaceSize

But when I get to the actual RtlDecompressBufferEx call:

ntstatus = RtlDecompressBufferEx(
	USHORT(calgo),
	ctypes.byref(ntDecompressed),
	ULONG(decompressed_size),
	ctypes.byref(ntCompressed),
	ULONG(compressed_size),
	ctypes.byref(ntFinalUncompressedSize),
	ctypes.byref(ntWorkspace))

if ntstatus:
	raise ValueError('Decompression failed, err: {}'.\
		format(tohex(ntstatus, 32)))

I get ValueError: Decompression failed, err: 0xc0000242 which is STATUS_BAD_COMPRESSION_BUFFER.
I tried different ctype calls & type modifications with no luck.

I also tried running it via native-Windpws Python 3.11 from the MS Store.
Exactly same error code.
I recon either the input or ouput buffer is incorrectly cast / passed to RtlDecompressBufferEx but I lack skill / knowledge to debug WinNT API + Python ctypes...

Any ideas?

Why not using https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/compressapi/nf-compressapi-decompress API?