Guide to Computer Forensics

and Investigations
Third Edition

Chapter 7
Current Computer Forensics
Tools
 Objectives

• Explain how to evaluate needs for computer

forensics tools
• Describe available computer forensics software
tools
• List some considerations for computer forensics
hardware tools
• Describe methods for validating and testing
computer forensics tools

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 2

 Evaluating Computer Forensics Tool
Needs
• Look for versatility, flexibility, and robustness
– OS
– File system
– Script capabilities
– Automated features
– Vendor’s reputation
• Keep in mind what application files you will be
analyzing

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 3

 Types of Computer Forensics Tools

• Hardware forensic tools

– Range from single-purpose components to complete
computer systems and servers
• Software forensic tools
– Types
• Command-line applications
• GUI applications
– Commonly used to copy data from a suspect’s disk
drive to an image file

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 4

 Tasks Performed by Computer
Forensics Tools

• Five major categories:

– Acquisition
– Validation and discrimination
– Extraction
– Reconstruction
– Reporting

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 5

 Tasks Performed by Computer
Forensics Tools (continued)
• Acquisition
– Making a copy of the original drive
• Acquisition subfunctions:
– Physical data copy
– Logical data copy
– Data acquisition format
– Command-line acquisition
– GUI acquisition
– Remote acquisition
– Verification

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 6

 Tasks Performed by Computer
Forensics Tools (continued)

• Acquisition (continued)
– Two types of data-copying methods are used in
software acquisitions:
• Physical copying of the entire drive
• Logical copying of a disk partition
– The formats for disk acquisitions vary
• From raw data to vendor-specific proprietary
compressed data
– You can view the contents of a raw image file with
any hexadecimal editor

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 7

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 8
 Tasks Performed by Computer
Forensics Tools (continued)

• Acquisition (continued)
– Creating smaller segmented files is a typical feature
in vendor acquisition tools
– All computer forensics acquisition tools have a
method for verification of the data-copying process
• That compares the original drive with the image

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 9

 Tasks Performed by Computer
Forensics Tools (continued)

• Validation and discrimination

– Validation
• Ensuring the integrity of data being copied
– Discrimination of data
• Involves sorting and searching through all
investigation data

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 10

 Tasks Performed by Computer
Forensics Tools (continued)
• Validation and discrimination (continued)
– Subfunctions
• Hashing
– CRC-32, MD5, Secure Hash Algorithms
• Filtering
– Based on hash value sets
• Analyzing file headers
– Discriminate files based on their types
– National Software Reference Library (NSRL) has
compiled a list of known file hashes
• For a variety of OSs, applications, and images

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 11

 Tasks Performed by Computer
Forensics Tools (continued)

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 12

 Tasks Performed by Computer
Forensics Tools (continued)

• Validation and discrimination (continued)

– Many computer forensics programs include a list of
common header values
• With this information, you can see whether a file
extension is incorrect for the file type
– Most forensics tools can identify header values

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 13

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 14
 Tasks Performed by Computer
Forensics Tools (continued)

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 15

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 16
 Tasks Performed by Computer
Forensics Tools (continued)

• Extraction
– Recovery task in a computing investigation
– Most demanding of all tasks to master
– Recovering data is the first step in analyzing an
investigation’s data

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 17

 Tasks Performed by Computer
Forensics Tools (continued)
• Extraction (continued)
– Subfunctions
• Data viewing
• Keyword searching
• Decompressing
• Carving
• Decrypting
• Bookmarking
– Keyword search speeds up analysis for investigators

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 18

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 19
 Tasks Performed by Computer
Forensics Tools (continued)

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 20

 Tasks Performed by Computer
Forensics Tools (continued)

• Extraction (continued)
– From an investigation perspective, encrypted files
and systems are a problem
– Many password recovery tools have a feature for
generating potential password lists
• For a password dictionary attack
– If a password dictionary attack fails, you can run a
brute-force attack

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 21

 Tasks Performed by Computer
Forensics Tools (continued)

• Reconstruction
– Re-create a suspect drive to show what happened
during a crime or an incident
– Subfunctions
• Disk-to-disk copy
• Image-to-disk copy
• Partition-to-partition copy
• Image-to-partition copy

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 22

 Tasks Performed by Computer
Forensics Tools (continued)

• Reconstruction (continued)
– Some tools that perform an image-to-disk copy:
• SafeBack
• SnapBack
• EnCase
• FTK Imager
• ProDiscover

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 23

 Tasks Performed by Computer
Forensics Tools (continued)
• Reporting
– To complete a forensics disk analysis and
examination, you need to create a report
– Subfunctions
• Log reports
• Report generator
– Use this information when producing a final report for
your investigation

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 24

 Tool Comparisons

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 25

 Other Considerations for Tools

• Considerations
– Flexibility
– Reliability
– Expandability
– Keep a library with older version of your tools
• Create a software library containing older versions
of forensics utilities, OSs, and other programs

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 26

 Computer Forensics Software Tools

• The following sections explore some options for

command-line and GUI tools in both Windows and
UNIX/Linux

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 27

 Command-line Forensic Tools
• The first tools that analyzed and extracted data
from floppy disks and hard disks were MS-DOS
tools for IBM PC file systems
• Norton DiskEdit
– One of the first MS-DOS tools used for computer
investigations
• Advantage
– Command-line tools require few system resources
• Designed to run in minimal configurations

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 28

 UNIX/Linux Forensic Tools

• *nix platforms have long been the primary

command-line OSs
• SMART
– Designed to be installed on numerous Linux versions
– Can analyze a variety of file systems with SMART
– Many plug-in utilities are included with SMART
– Another useful option in SMART is its hex viewer

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 29

UNIX/Linux Forensic Tools (continued)

• Helix
– One of the easiest suites to begin with
– You can load it on a live Windows system
• Loads as a bootable Linux OS from a cold boot
• Autopsy and SleuthKit
– Sleuth Kit is a Linux forensics tool
– Autopsy is the GUI/browser interface used to access
Sleuth Kit’s tools

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 30

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 31
UNIX/Linux Forensic Tools (continued)

• Knoppix-STD
– Knoppix Security Tools Distribution (STD)
• A collection of tools for configuring security measures,
including computer and network forensics
– Knoppix-STD is forensically sound
• Doesn’t allow you to alter or damage the system
you’re analyzing
– Knoppix-STD is a Linux bootable CD

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 32

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 33
Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 34
 Other GUI Forensic Tools

• Simplify computer forensics investigations

• Help training beginning investigators
• Most of them come into suites of tools
• Advantages
– Ease of use
– Multitasking
– No need for learning older OSs

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 35

Other GUI Forensic Tools (continued)

• Disadvantages
– Excessive resource requirements
– Produce inconsistent results
– Create tool dependencies

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 36

 Computer Forensics Hardware Tools

• Technology changes rapidly

• Hardware eventually fails
– Schedule equipment replacements
• When planning your budget consider:
– Failures
– Consultant and vendor fees
– Anticipate equipment replacement

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 37

 Forensic Workstations

• Carefully consider what you need

• Categories
– Stationary
– Portable
– Lightweight
• Balance what you need and what your system can
handle

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 38

 Forensic Workstations (continued)

• Police agency labs

– Need many options
– Use several PC configurations
• Private corporation labs
– Handle only system types used in the organization
• Keep a hardware library in addition to your
software library

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 39

 Forensic Workstations (continued)

• Not as difficult as it sounds

• Advantages
– Customized to your needs
– Save money
• Disadvantages
– Hard to find support for problems
– Can become expensive if careless
• Also need to identify what you intend to analyze

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 40

 Forensic Workstations (continued)

• You can buy one from a vendor as an alternative

• Examples
– F.R.E.D.
– F.I.R.E. IDE
• Having vendor support can save you time and
frustration when you have problems
• Can mix and match components to get the
capabilities you need for your forensic workstation

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 41

 Using a Write-Blocker

• Write-blocker
– Prevents data writes to a hard disk
• Software-enabled blockers
– Software write-blockers are OS dependant
– Example: PDBlock from Digital Intelligence
• Hardware options
– Ideal for GUI forensic tools
– Act as a bridge between the suspect drive and the
forensic workstation

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 42

 Using a Write-Blocker (continued)

• Can navigate to the blocked drive with any

application
• Discards the written data
– For the OS the data copy is successful
• Connecting technologies
– FireWire
– USB 2.0
– SCSI controllers

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 43

 Recommendations for a Forensic
Workstation

• Determine where data acquisitions will take place

• Data acquisition techniques
– USB 2.0
– FireWire
• Expansion devices requirements
• Power supply with battery backup
• Extra power and data cables

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 44

 Recommendations for a Forensic
Workstation (continued)

• External FireWire and USB 2.0 ports

• Assortment of drive adapter bridges
• Ergonomic considerations
– Keyboard and mouse
– A good video card with at least a 17-inch monitor
• High-end video card and monitor
• If you have a limited budget, one option for
outfitting your lab is to use high-end game PCs

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 45

 Validating and Testing Forensic
Software

• Make sure the evidence you recover and analyze

can be admitted in court
• Test and validate your software to prevent
damaging the evidence

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 46

 Using National Institute of Standards
and Technology (NIST) Tools

• Computer Forensics Tool Testing (CFTT)

program
– Manages research on computer forensics tools
• NIST has created criteria for testing computer
forensics tools based on:
– Standard testing methods
– ISO 17025 criteria for testing items that have no
current standards
– ISO 5725

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 47

 Using National Institute of Standards
and Technology (NIST) Tools
(continued)
• Your lab must meet the following criteria
– Establish categories for computer forensics tools
– Identify computer forensics category requirements
– Develop test assertions
– Identify test cases
– Establish a test method
– Report test results
• Also evaluates drive-imaging tools using
– Forensic Software Testing Support Tools (FS-TST)

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 48

 Using National Institute of Standards
and Technology (NIST) Tools
(continued)
• National Software Reference Library (NSRL)
project
– Collects all known hash values for commercial
software applications and OS files
• Uses SHA-1 to generate a known set of digital
signatures called the Reference Data Set (RDS)
– Helps filtering known information
– Can use RDS to locate and identify known bad files

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 49

 Using Validation Protocols

• Always verify your results

• Use at least two tools
– Retrieving and examination
– Verification
• Understand how tools work
• One way to compare results and verify a new tool
is by using a disk editor
– Such as Hex Workshop or WinHex

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 50

Using Validation Protocols (continued)

• Disk editors
– Do not have a flashy interface
– Reliable tools
– Can access raw data
• Computer Forensics Examination Protocol
– Perform the investigation with a GUI tool
– Verify your results with a disk editor
– Compare hash values obtained with both tools

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 51

Using Validation Protocols (continued)

• Computer Forensics Tool Upgrade Protocol

– Test
• New releases
• OS patches and upgrades
– If you find a problem, report it to forensics tool
vendor
• Do not use the forensics tool until the problem has
been fixed
– Use a test hard disk for validation purposes
– Check the Web for new editions, updates, patches,
and validation tests for your tools

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 52

 Summary

• Create a business plan to get the best hardware

and software
• Computer forensics tools functions
– Acquisition
– Validation and discrimination
– Extraction
– Reconstruction
– Reporting
• Maintain a software library on your lab

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 53

 Summary (continued)
• Computer Forensics tools types
– Software
– Hardware
• Forensics software
– Command-line
– GUI
• Forensics hardware
– Customized equipment
– Commercial options
– Include workstations and write-blockers

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 54

 Summary (continued)

• Tools that run in Windows and other GUI

environments don’t require the same level of
computing expertise as command-line tools
• Always test your forensics tools

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations 55