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GCFA · Question #321

Which of the following registry hives contains information about all users who have logged on to the system?

The correct answer is C. HKEY_USERS. HKEY_USERS is the registry hive that stores profile data for all users who have logged on to the system, including the default user profile.

File System & Registry Forensics

Question

Which of the following registry hives contains information about all users who have logged on to the system?

Options

  • AHKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
  • BHKEY_CURRENT_USERS
  • CHKEY_USERS
  • DHKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG

How the community answered

(36 responses)
  • A
    6% (2)
  • B
    14% (5)
  • C
    78% (28)
  • D
    3% (1)

Why each option

HKEY_USERS is the registry hive that stores profile data for all users who have logged on to the system, including the default user profile.

AHKEY_CLASSES_ROOT

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT stores file type associations and COM/OLE object registration data, not user profile information.

BHKEY_CURRENT_USERS

HKEY_CURRENT_USERS is not a valid Windows registry hive; the correct name is HKEY_CURRENT_USER (singular), which only reflects the currently logged-in user's data.

CHKEY_USERSCorrect

HKEY_USERS contains subkeys for every user account that has logged onto the system, identified by their SID, as well as the .DEFAULT profile - making it the authoritative registry location for all user profile data loaded on the machine.

DHKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG

HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG stores hardware profile information for the current boot session, not user account data.

Concept tested: Windows registry hive identification and purpose

Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/sysinfo/hkey-users

Topics

#registry hives#HKEY_USERS#user account tracking#Windows registry

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