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PowerShell for DFIR, Part 1: Log Analysis and System Hardening
Welcome back, aspiring DFIR defenders!
Welcome to the start of a new series dedicated to PowerShell for Defenders.
Many of you already know PowerShell as a tool of hackers. In our earlier PowerShell for Hackers series, we demonstrated just how much damage a skilled hacker can cause with it by taking over the entire organization with just one terminal window. In this new series, we flip the perspective. We are going to learn how to use it properly as defenders. There is far more to PowerShell than automation scripts and administrative shortcuts. For blue team operations, incident response, and digital forensics, PowerShell can become one of your most effective investigative instruments. It allows you to quickly process logs, extract indicators of compromise, and make sense of attacker behavior without waiting for heavy platforms.
Today, we will go through two PowerShell-based tools that are especially useful in defensive operations. The first one is DeepBlueCLI, developed by SANS, which helps defenders quickly analyze Windows event logs and highlight suspicious behavior. The second tool is WELA, a PowerShell script created by Yamato Security. WELA focuses on auditing and hardening Windows systems based on predefined security baselines. While both tools are PowerShell scripts, they serve different but complementary purposes. One helps you understand what already happened. The other helps you reduce the chance of it happening again.
DeepBlueCLI
DeepBlueCLI is a PowerShell-based tool created to help defenders quickly identify suspicious behavior in Windows event logs. Its strength lies in simplicity. You do not need complex configurations, long rule files, or a deep understanding of Windows internals to get started. DeepBlueCLI takes common attack patterns and maps them directly to event log indicators, presenting the results in a way that is easy to read and easy to act upon.
There are two main ways to use DeepBlueCLI. The first approach is by analyzing exported event logs, which is very common during incident response or post-incident forensic analysis. The second approach is live analysis, where the tool queries logs directly from the system it is running on. Both approaches are useful depending on the situation. During a live incident, quick answers matter. During forensic work, accuracy and context matter more.
A very helpful feature of DeepBlueCLI is that it comes with example event logs provided by the developer. These are intentionally crafted logs that simulate real attack scenarios, making them perfect for learning and practice. You can experiment and learn how attacker activity appears in logs. The syntax is straightforward.
Example Event Logs
In the example below, we take a sample event log provided by the developer and run DeepBlueCLI against it:
PS > .\DeepBlue.ps1 -file .\evtx\sliver-security.evtx
Sliver is a modern command-and-control framework often used by red teamers and real attackers as well. In the output of this command, we can see several interesting indicators. There is cmd.exe accessing the ADMIN$ share, which is a classic sign of lateral movement or administrative access attempts. We also see cmd.exe being launched via WMI through C:\Windows\System32\wbem\WmiPrvSE.exe. This is especially important because WMI execution is commonly used to execute commands remotely while avoiding traditional process creation patterns. Above that, we also notice cmd.exe /Q /c JOINT_BALL.exe. This executable is a Sliver payload. Sliver often generates payloads with seemingly random names.
Another example focuses on PowerShell obfuscation, which is a very common technique used to evade detection:
PS > .\DeepBlue.ps1 -file .\evtx\Powershell-Invoke-Obfuscation-many.evtx
In the results, we see very long command lines with heavily modified command names. This often looks like iNVOke variants or strange combinations of characters that still execute correctly. These commands usually pass through an obfuscation framework or an argument obfuscator, making them harder to read and harder for simple detections to catch. Occasionally, DeepBlueCLI struggles to fully decode these commands, especially when the obfuscation is layered or intentionally complex. This is not a weakness of the tool but rather a reflection of the logic behind obfuscation itself. The goal of obfuscation is to slow down defenders, and even partial visibility is already a win for us during investigation.
It is also worth mentioning that during real forensic or incident response work, you can export logs from any Windows machine and analyze them in exactly the same way. You do not need to run the tool on the compromised system itself.
Live Analysis
In some cases, speed matters more than completeness. DeepBlueCLI allows us to perform a quick live analysis by running PowerShell as an administrator and querying logs directly:
PS > .\DeepBlue.ps1 -log security
In this scenario, the tool immediately highlights suspicious behavior. For example, we can clearly see that several user accounts were subjected to brute-force attempts. One very practical feature here is that DeepBlueCLI counts the total number of failed logon attempts for us. Instead of manually filtering event IDs and correlating timestamps, we get an immediate overview that helps us decide whether further action is required.
WELA
WELA is a PowerShell script developed by Yamato Security that focuses on auditing and hardening Windows systems. Unlike DeepBlueCLI, which looks primarily at what happened in the past, WELA helps you understand the current security posture of a system and guides you toward improving it. It audits system settings against a predefined baseline and highlights areas where the configuration does not meet expected security standards. Because WELA uses advanced PowerShell techniques and low-level system queries, it is often flagged by antivirus as potentially malicious. This does not mean the script is harmful. The script is legitimate and intended for defensive use.
To begin, we can view the help menu to see what functionality the developer has included:
PS > .\WELA.ps1 help
From the available options, we can see that WELA supports auditing system settings using baselines provided by Yamato Security. This audit runs in the terminal and saves results to CSV files, which is often the preferred format for documentation and further analysis. For those who prefer a graphical interface, a GUI version is also available. Another option allows you to analyze the size of log files, either before or after configuration changes, which can be useful when tuning logging policies.
Updating Rules
Before performing any audit, it is a good idea to update the rules. For this to work smoothly, you first need to create a directory named config in the folder where the script resides:
PS > mkdir config
PS > .\WELA.ps1 update-rules
This ensures that the script has a proper location to store updated configuration data and avoids unnecessary errors.
Auditing
Once the rules are up to date, we are ready to audit the system and see where it meets the baseline and where it falls short. Many defenders prefer starting with the terminal output, as it is faster to navigate:
PS > .\WELA.ps1 audit-settings -Baseline YamatoSecurity
At this stage, the script reviews the current system settings and compares them against the selected baseline. The results clearly show which settings match expectations and which ones require attention.
The audit can be performed using the graphical interface:
PS > .\WELA.ps1 audit-settings -Baseline ASD -OutType gui
This option is particularly useful for presentations and reports.
Check
After auditing, we can perform a focused check related to log file sizes:
PS > .\WELA.ps1 audit-filesize -Baseline YamatoSecurity
The output shows that the system is not hardened enough. This is not uncommon and should be seen as an opportunity rather than a failure. The entire purpose of this step is to identify weaknesses before a hacker does.
Hardening
Finally, we move on to hardening the system:
PS > .\WELA.ps1 configure -Baseline YamatoSecurity
This process walks you through each setting step by step, allowing you to make informed decisions about what to apply. There is also an option to apply all settings in batch mode without prompts, which can be useful during large-scale deployments.
Summary
PowerShell remains one of the most decisive tools on a modern Windows system, and that reality applies just as much to defenders as it does to attackers. In this article, you saw two PowerShell-based tools that address different stages of defensive work but ultimately support the same goal of reducing uncertainty during incidents and improving the security baseline before an attacker can exploit it.
We are also preparing dedicated PowerShell training that will be valuable for both defenders and red teamers. This training will focus on practical, real-world PowerShell usage in both offensive and defensive security operations and will be available to Subscriber and Subscriber Pro students from March 10-12.
