This paper describes the use of the Virtual Address Descriptor (VAD) tree structure in Windows memory dumps to help guide forensic analysis of Windows memory. We describe how to locate and parse the structure, and show its value in breaking up physical memory into more manageable and semantically meaningful units than can be obtained by simply walking the page directory for the process. Several tools to display information about the VAD tree and dump the memory regions it describes will also be presented.
REF introduced a method to walk the Virtual Address Descriptor (VAD) tree.
The VAD tree: A process-eye view of physical memory
Digital Investigation
Digital Investigation
Computer Science