LnkParse3 1.5.3
Windows Shortcut file (LNK) parser
License: MIT

# LnkParse3

Windows Shortcut file (LNK) parser

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LnkParse3 is a minimalistic python package for **forensics** of a binary file with [LNK](https://fileinfo.com/extension/lnk) extension aka [Microsoft Shell Link](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/openspecs/windows_protocols/ms-shllink/16cb4ca1-9339-4d0c-a68d-bf1d6cc0f943) aka Windows shortcut. It is aimed to dig up as much data as possible and to process even **malformed files**. It is not able to create or modify files.

## Features

- easy to use
- CLI tool & package
- JSON output

# Background

This is a fork of `lnkfile` available [here](https://github.com/silascutler/LnkParse).

Improvements:

- much more extracted data
- many bug fixes
- made to not fail on malformed files

NOTE: `master` branch history was rewritten and has different commits metadata than the upstream `master`.

# Installation

```
pip install LnkParse3
```

# Usage

Can be used as a package or as a command line tool. It accepts several arguments, including setting the output format to JSON or a more human-readable form. For all parameters, see the program description below.

```
usage: lnkparse [-h] [-t] [-j] [-c CP] [-a] FILE

Windows Shortcut file (LNK) parser

positional arguments:
  FILE                  absolute or relative path to the file

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -t, --target          print target only
  -j, --json            print output in JSON
  -c CP, --codepage CP  set codepage of ASCII strings
  -a, --all             print all extracted data (i.e. offsets and sizes)
```

## CLI tool

```console
$ lnkparse tests/samples/microsoft_example
Windows Shortcut Information:
   Guid: 00021401-0000-0000-C000-000000000046
   Link flags: HasTargetIDList | HasLinkInfo | HasRelativePath | HasWorkingDir | IsUnicode | EnableTargetMetadata - (524443)
   File flags: FILE_ATTRIBUTE_ARCHIVE - (32)
   Creation time: 2008-09-12 20:27:17.101000+00:00
   Accessed time: 2008-09-12 20:27:17.101000+00:00
   Modified time: 2008-09-12 20:27:17.101000+00:00
   File size: 0
   Icon index: 0
   Windowstyle: SW_SHOWNORMAL
   Hotkey: UNSET - UNSET {0x0000}

   ...more data...

   EXTRA:
      DISTRIBUTED LINK TRACKER BLOCK:
         Size: 96
         Length: 88
         Version: 0
         Machine identifier: chris-xps
         Droid volume identifier: 94C77840-FA47-46C7-B356-5C2DC6B6D115
         Droid file identifier: 7BCD46EC-7F22-11DD-9499-00137216874A
         Birth droid volume identifier: 94C77840-FA47-46C7-B356-5C2DC6B6D115
         Birth droid file identifier: 7BCD46EC-7F22-11DD-9499-00137216874A
```

## Python package

```python
>>> import LnkParse3
>>> with open('tests/samples/microsoft_example', 'rb') as indata:
>>> 	lnk = LnkParse3.lnk_file(indata)
>>> 	lnk.print_json()
{
	"data": {
        "relative_path": ".\\a.txt",
        "working_directory": "C:\\test"
    },
    "extra": {
        "DISTRIBUTED_LINK_TRACKER_BLOCK": {
            "birth_droid_file_identifier": "7BCD46EC-7F22-11DD-9499-00137216874A",
            "birth_droid_volume_identifier": "94C77840-FA47-46C7-B356-5C2DC6B6D115",
            "droid_file_identifier": "7BCD46EC-7F22-11DD-9499-00137216874A",
            "droid_volume_identifier": "94C77840-FA47-46C7-B356-5C2DC6B6D115",
            "length": 88,
            "machine_identifier": "chris-xps",
            "size": 96,
            "version": 0
        }
    },
	...more data...
}
```

# Extracted data

List of data in LNK structure and their current status of implementation.
For more information about each data, see [Microsoft LNK documentation](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/openspecs/windows_protocols/ms-shllink/16cb4ca1-9339-4d0c-a68d-bf1d6cc0f943) and [Shell item format specification](https://github.com/libyal/libfwsi/blob/main/documentation/Windows%20Shell%20Item%20format.asciidoc).

- [x] **ShellLinkHeader** [`lnk_header.py`]
- [ ] **LinkTargetIDList** [`lnk_targets.py`]
  - [ ] **RootFolder** [`root_folder.py`] (incomplete)
  - [ ] **CommonPlacesFolder** [`common_places_folder.py`]
  - [ ] **CompressedFolder** [`compressed_folder.py`]
  - [ ] **ControlPanel** [`control_panel.py`]
  - [ ] **Internet** [`internet.py`]
  - [ ] **MyComputer** [`my_computer.py`]
  - [x] **NetworkLocation** [`network_location.py`]
  - [ ] **Printers** [`printers.py`]
  - [ ] **ShellFSFolder** [`shell_fs_folder.py`] (incomplete)
  - [ ] **UsersFilesFolder** [`users_files_folder.py`]
- [x] **LinkInfo** [`lnk_info.py`]
  - [x] **Local** [`local.py`]
  - [x] **Network** [`network.py`]
- [x] **StringData** [`string_data.py`]
- [ ] **ExtraData** [`extra_data.py`]
  - [x] **ConsoleDataBlock** [`console.py`]
  - [x] **ConsoleFEDataBlock** [`code_page.py`]
  - [x] **DarwinDataBlock** [`darwin.py`]
  - [x] **EnvironmentVariableDataBlock** [`environment.py`]
  - [x] **IconEnvironmentDataBlock** [`icon.py`]
  - [x] **KnownFolderDataBlock** [`known_folder.py`]
  - [ ] **PropertyStoreDataBlock** [`metadata.py`] (incomplete)
  - [x] **ShimDataBlock** [`shim_layer.py`]
  - [x] **SpecialFolderDataBlock** [`special_folder.py`]
  - [x] **TrackerDataBlock** [`distributed_tracker.py`]
  - [x] **VistaAndAboveIDListDataBlock** [`shell_item.py`]
  - [x] *Unknown (undefined) block* [`unknown.py`]
  - [x] **TerminalBlock** [`terminal.py`]

# Contributing

Any contribution is welcome. There are still several uncovered parts of LNK Structure. Just fork the project and open a new PR.

## Tests

To run tests without installing any dependencies, just run:

```sh
python -m unittest discover tests
```

If you want to use `pytest`, install it via `pip` and run:

```sh
pytest tests
```

Also, to see code coverage in HTML output, run:

```sh
pytest --cov=LnkParse3 tests --cov-fail-under=80 --cov-report=html --no-cov-on-fail
```

## Code

Make sure to run [`ruff`](https://docs.astral.sh/ruff/) auto-formatter and linter before opening a PR. It will keep the code in good shape.

Also, it would be nice to try to make meaningful commit messages and atomic commits.

# Authors and acknowledgment

Many thanks to the project's founder [@silascutler](https://github.com/silascutler) as well as to [@ernix](https://github.com/ernix) for such a good job refactoring and improving the code.

# Related projects

Here is a list of other available LNK parsers:

- [pylnk3](https://github.com/strayge/pylnk) - console application and package in Python 3
- [lnk-parse](https://github.com/lcorbasson/lnk-parse) - console application in Perl
- [pylnker](https://github.com/HarmJ0y/pylnker) - console application and package in Python 2, based on lnk-parse
- [liblnk](https://github.com/libyal/liblnk) - robust C library with Python 2/3 bindings

# License

Distributed under the MIT License. See [LICENSE](https://github.com/Matmaus/LnkParse3/blob/master/LICENSE) for more information.

# Contact

[matusjas.work@gmail.com](mailto:matusjas.work@gmail.com)

Source - [https://github.com/Matmaus/LnkParse3](https://github.com/Matmaus/LnkParse3)