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Attribute 0x40 $OBJECT_ID

Article detailing an overview of NT File System $MFT file segment entry (record) attribute 0x40 $OBJECT_ID.
Attribute 0x40 $OBJECT_ID

The purpose of the Object Id attribute is to identify individual files on a network.

This attribute is known as a resident attribute meaning that all the relevant file information only resides within the attribute itself.

An example of an Object ID attribute is detailed below:

Screenshot of $MFT file segment entry attribute 0x40.

This attribute contains a 128 bit identifier which is used to uniquely identify a file on a Windows computer and within a Windows network. Note that a service called Distributed Linked Tracking (DLT) will first need to be enabled (on the Domain Controller or DC) before the tracking of files can occur across a network. DLT information is stored within the Active Directory (AD) database on the Domain Controller.

Additional information…

The DLT client on a Windows computer is enabled by default. To see the service running open up Task Manager and navigate to Services. The service is called ‘TrkWks’ (trkwks.dll) and will be run under a generic windows process (svchost.exe). See image below:

Screenshot of Task Manager displaying the status of services.

The 128 bit identifier if expressed as a value is 2128. The actual value is 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 which is a lot!

That number can be expressed as 340 billion, billion, billion, billion or 340 undecillion. An undecillian contains 36 zero’s!

Interestingly 2128 is the same value calculated by the MD5 algorithm.

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