How to write a parser

Introduction

This page is intended to give you an introduction into developing a parser for plaso.

  • First a step-by-step example is provided to create a simple binary parser for the Safari Cookies.binarycookies file.
  • At bottom are some common troubleshooting tips that others have run into before you.

This page assumes you have at least a basic understanding of programming in Python and use of git.

Format

Before you can write a binary file parser you will need to have a good understanding of the file format. A description of the Safari Cookies.binarycookies format can be found here.

Parsers vs. Plugins

Before starting work on a parser, check if Plaso already has a parser that handles the underlying format of the file you’re parsing. Plaso currently supports plugins for the following file formats:

  • Bencode
  • Web Browser Cookies
  • ESEDB
  • OLECF
  • Plist
  • SQLite
  • Syslog
  • Windows Registry

If the artifact you’re trying to parse is in one of these formats, you need to write a plugin of the appropriate type, rather than a parser.

For our example, however, the Safari Cookies.binarycookies file is in its own binary format, so a separate parser is appropriate.

Test data

First we make a representative test file and add it to the test_data/ directory, in our example:

test_data/Cookies.binarycookies

Make sure that the test file does not contain sensitive or copyrighted material.

Parsers, formatters, events and event data

  • parser; subclass of plaso.parsers.interface.FileObjectParser, that extracts events from the content of a file.
  • formatter (or event formatter); subclass of plaso.formatters.interface.EventFormatter, that generates a human readable description of the event data.
  • event; subclass of plaso.containers.events.EventObject, that represents an event
  • event data; subclass of plaso.containers.events.EventData, that represents data related to the event.

Writing the parser

Registering the parser

Add an import for the parser to:

plaso/parsers/__init__.py

from plaso.parsers import safari_cookies

When plaso.parsers is imported this will load the safari_cookies module (safari_cookies.py).

The parser class BinaryCookieParser is registered using manager.ParsersManager.RegisterParser(BinaryCookieParser).

plaso/parsers/safari_cookies.py

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
"""Parser for Safari Binary Cookie files."""

from plaso.parsers import interface
from plaso.parsers import manager


class BinaryCookieParser(interface.FileObjectParser):
  """Parser for Safari Binary Cookie files."""

  NAME = u'binary_cookies'
  DESCRIPTION = u'Parser for Safari Binary Cookie files.'

  def ParseFileObject(self, parser_mediator, file_object, **kwargs):
    """Parses a Safari binary cookie file-like object.

    Args:
      parser_mediator (ParserMediator): parser mediator.
      file_object (dfvfs.FileIO): file-like object to be parsed.

    Raises:
      UnableToParseFile: when the file cannot be parsed, this will signal
          the event extractor to apply other parsers.
    """
    ...


manager.ParsersManager.RegisterParser(BinaryCookieParser)
  • NAME
  • DESCRIPTION

Writing the event formatter

plaso/formatters/safari_cookies.py