FadedAlchemist detects malware-induced Windows Registry modifications. Point it at a directory of collected hives — e.g. output from Acquire — and it will extract persistence mechanisms, statistically anomalous values, and results from regipy's built-in forensic plugins.
- Persistence discovery (ASEP) — Detects known Auto-Start Extensibility Points (Run keys, scheduled tasks, services) for ASEP vectors.
- Statistical artefact analysis — Scores extracted values on Shannon entropy, Chi-Squared Randomness, Length, and Flags (IP/URL/B64D Detection) to surface values that look attacker-planted rather than legitimate configuration.
- Baselining — collect a "known good" baseline from a clean device and subtract it from a sample to cut straight to what changed.
- regipy plugin integration — runs any of regipy's 70+ bundled artefact plugins (Amcache, ShimCache, UserAssist, Shellbags, etc.) against the collected hives.
- Transaction log replay — detects dirty hives and can replay their
.LOG1/.LOG2transaction logs to recover the latest state before analysis.
Requires Python 3.11+.
pip install -r requirements.txt
FadedAlchemist V2 uses the new accelerated regipy Rust backend which speeds up key extraction around 600x
Faded Alchemist is invoked as Alchemist.py <mode> -d <path> [options]. Every mode reads hives from the given directory; which files count as hives, and which subdirectories are skipped as duplicates/irrelevant (e.g. regback, Default), is defined in Alchemist.HIVE_NAMES/DEFEAT_DIRECTORIES.
| Mode | Description |
|---|---|
comprehensive | Runs both persistence and artefacts analysis |
persistence | Discovers ASEP persistence mechanisms only (fast — skips full key extraction) |
artefacts | Runs the statistical entropy/chi-squared/length/marks analysis only |
plugins | Runs regipy's built-in artefact plugins against each hive |
list-plugins | Lists every available regipy plugin (name, compatible hive, description) and exits |
Run against a clean reference image so its values can be subtracted from later scans:
python .\Alchemist.py comprehensive -d X:\Path\To\Acquire\Collection --collect-baseline
python .\Alchemist.py comprehensive -d X:\Path\To\Acquire\Collection --use-baseline .\baseline\BaselineData_xxxx.p -n MySampleName
python .\Alchemist.py persistence -d X:\Path\To\Acquire\Collection
python .\Alchemist.py plugins -d X:\Path\To\Acquire\Collection --plugins amcache,shimcache
Every run creates an output directory named after --name (or a random designator if omitted), containing:
| File | Produced by | Contents |
|---|---|---|
<name>_ASEP_Results.{json,csv}, ASEP.table | persistence/comprehensive | Discovered autoruns, scheduled tasks, and services |
<name>_Results.{json,csv,p}, Alchemist.table | artefacts/comprehensive | Values that passed the entropy/length/marks "meaningful" filter |
<name>_Plugins.{json,csv}, Plugins.table | plugins | Per-hive results from each regipy plugin that ran |
BaselineData_<name>.{json,p} | --collect-baseline | Every extracted value, for use as --use-baseline input on a later run |
.table files are plain-text snapshots of the Rich tables printed to console, for easy diffing/review outside a terminal.
ASEP Keys
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Method | Value | Context |
|----------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------|
| SCHEDULED_TASK | 6e5cb530-6e5c-b530-6e5c-6e5cb5306e50 | {76F7B83F-12AD-4370-A37F-538F2344A0A5} |
| SCHEDULED_TASK | SetupCleanupTask | {AF2FFE13-7176-45EB-BE68-FEA1ABC76588} |
| SCHEDULED_TASK | Schedule Retry Scan | {E9726D33-EC6C-4A01-BBAB-CEDF22B8F14C} |
| SCHEDULED_TASK | MicrosoftEdgeUpdateTaskUserS-1-5-21-4087482164-2601983007-2479528554-1000Core{309F9EAF-9287-4133-A1C2-EF9E09A1031E} | {9426D946-2504-4F3F-AA13-C0B248516004} |
| SCHEDULED_TASK | MicrosoftEdgeUpdateTaskUserS-1-5-21-4087482164-2601983007-2479528554-1000UA{098FAE39-29ED-43ED-80CB-0125542E393E} | {1450C988-13B2-4C9E-8A39-6984C6D3331F} |
| SCHEDULED_TASK | OneDrive Standalone Update Task-S-1-5-21-4087482164-2601983007-2479528554-1000 | {F6D52563-1A2E-4E3E-918F-9D7A125B017B} |
| SCHEDULED_TASK | OneDrive Startup Task-S-1-5-21-4087482164-2601983007-2479528554-1000 | {37143E27-DF80-4839-B6EA-A88669EC03F1} |
| HKLM_SERVICE | CDPUserSvc_32dfc | Connected Devices Platform User Service_32dfc |
| HKLM_SERVICE | DevicesFlowUserSvc_32dfc | DevicesFlow_32dfc |
| HKLM_SERVICE | MessagingService_32dfc | MessagingService_32dfc |
| HKLM_SERVICE | OneSyncSvc_32dfc | Sync Host_32dfc |
| HKLM_SERVICE | PimIndexMaintenanceSvc_32dfc | Contact Data_32dfc |
| HKLM_SERVICE | UnistoreSvc_32dfc | User Data Storage_32dfc |
| HKLM_SERVICE | UserDataSvc_32dfc | User Data Access_32dfc |
| HKLM_SERVICE | WpnUserService_32dfc | Windows Push Notifications User Service_32dfc |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| HIVE | Key_Path | TS | Value_Name | Value_Type | Value | Entropy | ChiSquared | Length | Marks |
|----------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+---------------------+---------------------+------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| NTUSER | \Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM | 2025-03-26 11:55:16 | fjhsfgds | REG_SZ | 191_62_106_23 | 2.6612262562697895 | N/a | 13 | ['IP'] |
| NTUSER | \Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM | 2025-03-26 11:55:16 | 6e5cb5301 | REG_SZ | QQBkAGQALQBUAHkAcABlACAALQBUAHk.... | 4.120352779215068 | N/a | 256 | ['Base64'] |
| NTUSER | \Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM | 2025-03-26 11:55:16 | 6e5cb530c | REG_SZ | https://4ad74aab.fun/index.php | 4.031401845392171 | N/a | 30 | ['URL'] |
| SYSTEM | \ControlSet001\Control\ProductOptions | 2025-03-26 11:51:44 | ProductPolicy | REG_BINARY | <BINARY_DATA> | 3.3582123455953075 | 3980355.8894219045 | 49196 | [] |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
usage: FADED ALCHEMIST [-h] {comprehensive,persistence,artefacts,plugins,list-plugins} ...
Capability to enable detection of malware-induced Windows Registry modifications
positional arguments:
{comprehensive,persistence,artefacts,plugins,list-plugins}
Scan mode to run
comprehensive Perform ALL Available Analysis
persistence Discover Persistence on Device via the Registry
artefacts Perform Statistical Analysis of the Registry
plugins Run regipy's built-in artefact plugins against each hive
list-plugins List all available regipy plugins and exit
options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
comprehensive, persistence, artefacts, and plugins all share the same set of options:
-d, --directory PATH Specify the directory where registry files are stored
--restore-hives Replay Registry Transaction Logs into Hives Where Possible
--drop-unknown-reg-types
Drop values with an unrecognized registry type
--format {JSON,CSV,ALL}
Enable JSON or CSV for output formats
--show-locations Include the registry key location/path as a column in output
--collect-baseline Dumps Extracted Values JSON & Pickle to Deduplicate Against
--use-baseline USE_BASELINE
Uses Extracted Values JSON/Pickle file to Deduplicate Against
--shannon_threshold SHANNON_THRESHOLD
--length_threshold LENGTH_THRESHOLD
--dynamic-length-purging
--plugins PLUGINS Comma-separated regipy plugin names to run (default: all validated plugins)
--include-unvalidated-plugins
Also run regipy plugins without validation test cases
--verbose, -v Increase logging verbosity, e.g. -v enables DEBUG logging
--name, -n NAME Assign a designator to a scan, all saved files used this to identify multiple runs
list-plugins takes no options besides -h.
MIT — see LICENSE.