Forensic Science and Technology Commons^™

While conducting a validation study of proficiency test media we found that applying the same hash algorithm against a single CD using different forensic applications resulted in different hash values. We formulated a series of experiments to determine the cause of the anomalous hash values. Our results suggest that certain write options cause forensic applications to report different hash values. We examine the possible consequences of these anomalies in legal proceedings and provide best practices for the use of hashing procedures.

As Linux-kernel-based operating systems proliferate there will be an inevitable increase in Linux systems that law enforcement agents must process in criminal investigations. The skills and expertise required to recover evidence from Microsoft-Windows-based systems do not necessarily translate to Linux systems. This paper discusses digital forensic procedures for recovering evidence from Linux systems. In particular, it presents methods for identifying and recovering deleted files from disk and volatile memory, identifying notable and Trojan files, finding hidden files, and finding files with renamed extensions. All the procedures are accomplished using Linux command line utilities and require no special or commercial tools.