Time Decode

A Python 3 timestamp and date decoder/encoder.

I noticed a lack of timestamp conversion utilities in a number of different linux systems. Since I happen to use linux in my day-to-day work I thought this would help.

This was developed with the Digital Forensics field in mind, so all of the testing has been done with the up-to-date SIFT Kit from SANS. If you have any questions, suggestions, helpful thoughts of any kind, please feel free to drop me a line.

Requirements

For python3, dateutil does not come pre-installed as a module. It will need to be installed manually:

sudo apt-get install python3-dateutil or python3 -m pip install python-dateutil

Install

python3 -m pip install time-decode or python3 -m pip install git+https://github.com/digitalsleuth/time_decode

This python script provides the following conversions from existing timestamps:

• 128-bit SYSTEMTIME
• 32-bit MS-DOS time, result is Local
• Active Directory value
• Apple Biome 64-bit decimal format
• Apple Biome hex format
• Bitwise decimal 10-digit
• BPlist (as NSDate)
• Cocoa Core (as NSDate)
• DHCP6 DUID
• Discord URL
• exFAT
• FAT Date + Time (wFat)
• FILETIME
• GMail Boundary
• GMail Message ID
• Google Chrome value
• Google EI URL (thanks to http://cheeky4n6monkey.blogspot.com/2014/10/google-eid.html)
• GPS
• GSM
• HFS(+) BE, HFS Local, HFS+ UTC
• HFS(+) LE, HFS Local, HFS+ UTC
• Hotmail
• iOS 11+ (as NSDate)
• KSUID 27-character
• KSUID 9-digit
• Mac Absolute Time (as NSDate)
• Mac OS/HFS+ Decimal Time
• Mastodon URL
• Metasploit Payload UUID
• Motorola's 6-byte
• Mozilla's PRTime
• MS Excel 1904 Date
• .NET DateTime
• Nokia 4-byte
• Nokia 4-byte LE
• Nokia S40 7-byte
• Nokia S40 7-byte LE
• OLE Automation Date
• S32 Encoded (Bluesky Social timestamp)
• Samsung/LG 4-byte
• Sonyflake URL (Sony version of Twitter Snowflake)
• Symantec's 6-byte AV
• TikTok URL
• Twitter URL
• Unix Hex 32-bit BE
• Unix Hex 32-bit LE
• Unix Milliseconds
• Unix Seconds
• UUID
• VMWare Snapshot (.vmsd)
• Windows 64-bit Hex BE
• Windows 64-bit Hex LE
• Windows Cookie Date (Low,High)
• Windows OLE 64-bit BE (SRUM as well)
• Windows OLE 64-bit LE

Note that HFS times are in Local Time, where HFS+ times are in UTC. MS-DOS 32 bit Hex values and MS-DOS FAT Date+Time are also in Local Time of the source generating the timestamp. All other times, unless expressly mentioned, are in UTC.

I have added a feature to 'guess' in what format the timestamp is that you've provided. This will run the timestamp you provide against all methods, and provide an output if human-readable. There is also the ability to convert a date-time to all of the aforementioned timestamps. Simply use the following command:

time-decode --timestamp "2023-04-27 16:14:15.678" or for timezones use: time-decode --timestamp "2023-04-27 16:14:15 -5"

The date/time you enter should be in the "YYYY-mm-dd HH:MM:SS.sss" format with the double-quote included, but does not require milli/micro/nano seconds to work. (Double-quote required for Windows Python) If anyone has any other timestamps they think should be added to this tool, please let me know.

References/Sources for all material can also be found in the docstrings in the python script.