Forensic Science and Technology Commons^™

Experience Constructing The Artifact Genome Project (Agp): Managing The Domain's Knowledge One Artifact At A Time, Cinthya Grajeda, Laura Sanchez, Ibrahim Baggili, Devon R. Clark, Frank Breitinger

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

While various tools have been created to assist the digital forensics community with acquiring, processing, and organizing evidence and indicating the existence of artifacts, very few attempts have been made to establish a centralized system for archiving artifacts. The Artifact Genome Project (AGP) has aimed to create the largest vetted and freely available digital forensics repository for Curated Forensic Artifacts (CuFAs). This paper details the experience of building, implementing, and maintaining such a system by sharing design decisions, lessons learned, and future work. We also discuss the impact of AGP in both the professional and academic realms of digital forensics. …

Contents, Adfsl

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Front Matter, Adfsl

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of Data Erasure Capability On Sshd Drives For Data Recovery, Andrew Blyth

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Data Protection and Computer Forensics/Anti-Forensics has now become a critical area of concern for organizations. A key element to this is how data is sanitized at end of life. In this paper we explore Hybrid Solid State Hybrid Drives (SSHD) and the impact that various Computer Forensics and Data Recovery techniques have when performing data erasure upon a SSHD.

Knowledge Expiration In Security Awareness Training, Tianjian Zhang

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Positive Identification Of Lsb Image Steganography Using Cover Image Comparisons, Michael Pelosi, Nimesh Poudel, Pratap Lamichhane, Devon Lam, Gary Kessler, Joshua Macmonagle

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

In this paper we introduce a new software concept specifically designed to allow the digital forensics professional to clearly identify and attribute instances of LSB image steganography by using the original cover image in side-by-side comparison with a suspected steganographic payload image. The “CounterSteg” software allows detailed analysis and comparison of both the original cover image and any modified image, using sophisticated bit- and color-channel visual depiction graphics. In certain cases, the steganographic software used for message transmission can be identified by the forensic analysis of LSB and other changes in the payload image. The paper demonstrates usage and typical …

Exploring The Use Of Graph Databases To Catalog Artifacts For Client Forensics, Rose Shumba

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Cloud computing has revolutionized the methods by which digital data is stored, processed, and transmitted. It is providing users with data storage and processing services, enabling access to resources through multiple devices. Although organizations continue to embrace the advantages of flexibility and scalability offered by cloud computing, insider threats are becoming a serious concern as cited by security researchers. Insiders can use authorized access to steal sensitive information, calling for the need for an investigation. This concept paper describes research in progress towards developing a Neo4j graph database tool to enhance client forensics. The tool, with a Python interface, allows …

Precognition: Automated Digital Forensic Readiness System For Mobile Computing Devices In Enterprises, Jayaprakash Govindaraj, Robin Verma, Gaurav Gupta

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Enterprises are facing an unprecedented risk of security incidents due to the influx of emerging technologies, like smartphones and wearables. Most of the current Mobile security systems are not maturing in pace with technological advances. They lack the ability to learn and adapt from the past knowledge base. In the case of a security incident, enterprises find themselves underprepared for the lack of evidence and data. The systems are not designed to be forensic ready. There is a need for automated security analysis and forensically ready solution, which can learn and continuously adapt to new challenges, improve efficiency and productivity …

Non-Use Of A Mobile Phone During Conducting Crime Can Also Be Evidential, Vinod Polpaya Bhattathiripad Ph D

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Cyber-clever criminals who are aware of the consequence of using mobile phones during conducting crimes often stay away from their phones while involved in crimes. Some of them even change their handset and SIM card, subsequently. This article looks into how, intentional disassociation (and even unintentional non-use) of mobile phone in (non-cyber) crimes, can become evidential clues of the perpetrators’ involvement in criminal acts. With the help of a recent judicial episode, this article reveals how extremely careful and masterful handling of extensive and voluminous Call Details Records and tower dumps by a cyber-savvy investigating official can unearth evidential clues …

Forensic Analysis Of The Exfat Artifacts, Yves Vandermeer, An Lekhac, Tahar Kechadi, Joe Carthy

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Although keeping some basic concepts inherited from FAT32, the exFAT file system introduces many differences, such as the new mapping scheme of directory entries. The combination of exFAT mapping scheme with the allocation of bitmap files and the use of FAT leads to new forensic possibilities. The recovery of deleted files, including fragmented ones and carving becomes more accurate compared with former forensic processes. Nowadays, the accurate and sound forensic analysis is more than ever needed, as there is a high risk of erroneous interpretation. Indeed, most of the related work in the literature on exFAT structure and forensics, is …

Live Gpu Forensics: The Process Of Recovering Video Frames From Nvidia Gpu, Yazeed M. Albabtain, Baijian Yang

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The purpose of this research is to apply a graphics processing unit (GPU) forensics method to recover video artifacts from NVIDIA GPU. The tested video specs are 512 x 512 in resolution for video 1 and 800 x 600 in resolution for video 2. Both videos are mpeg4 video codec. A VLC player was used in the experiment. A special program has been developed using OpenCL to recover 1) patterns that are frames consist of pixel values and 2) dump data from the GPU global memory. The dump data that represent the video frame were located using simple steps. The …

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Forensic Investigation Process: Dji Phantom 3 Drone As A Case Study, Alan Roder, Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, Nhien-A Le-Khac

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Drones (also known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles – UAVs) are a potential source of evidence in a digital investigation, partly due to their increasing popularity in our society. However, existing UAV/drone forensics generally rely on conventional digital forensic investigation guidelines such as those of ACPO and NIST, which may not be entirely fit-for-purpose. In this paper, we identify the challenges associated with UAV/drone forensics. We then explore and evaluate existing forensic guidelines, in terms of their effectiveness for UAV/drone forensic investigations. Next, we present our set of guidelines for UAV/drone investigations. Finally, we demonstrate how the proposed guidelines can be …

Detection And Recovery Of Anti-Forensic (Vault) Applications On Android Devices, Michaila Duncan, Umit Karabiyik

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Significant number of mobile device users currently employ anti-forensics applications, also known as vault or locker applications, on their mobile devices in order to hide files such as photos. Because of this, investigators are required to spend a large portion of their time manually looking at the applications installed on the device. Currently, there is no automated method of detecting these anti-forensics applications on an Android device. This work presents the creation and testing of a vault application detection system to be used on Android devices. The main goal of this work is twofold: (i) Detecting and reporting the presence …

Automated Man-In-The-Middle Attack Against Wi‑Fi Networks, Martin Vondráček, Jan Pluskal, Ondřej Ryšavý

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Currently used wireless communication technologies suffer security weaknesses that can be exploited allowing to eavesdrop or to spoof network communication. In this paper, we present a practical tool that can automate the attack on wireless security. The developed package called wifimitm provides functionality for the automation of MitM attacks in the wireless environment. The package combines several existing tools and attack strategies to bypass the wireless security mechanisms, such as WEP, WPA, and WPS. The presented tool can be integrated into a solution for automated penetration testing. Also, a popularization of the fact that such attacks can be easily automated …

Back Matter, Adfsl

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Front Matter, Adfsl

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Contents, Adfsl

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

An Overview Of The Usage Of Default Passwords, Brandon Knierem, Xiaolu Zhang, Philip Levine, Frank Breitinger, Ibrahim Baggili

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

The recent Mirai botnet attack demonstrated the danger of using default passwords and showed it is still a major problem. In this study we investigated several common applications and their password policies. Specifically, we analyzed if these applications: (1) have default passwords or (2) allow the user to set a weak password (i.e., they do not properly enforce a password policy). Our study shows that default passwords are still a significant problem: 61% of applications inspected initially used a default or blank password. When changing the password, 58% allowed a blank password, 35% allowed a weak password of 1 character.

If I Had A Million Cryptos: Cryptowallet Application Analysis And A Trojan Proof-Of-Concept, Trevor Haigh, Frank Breitinger, Ibrahim Baggili

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

Cryptocurrencies have gained wide adoption by enthusiasts and investors. In this work, we examine seven different Android cryptowallet applications for forensic artifacts, but we also assess their security against tampering and reverse engineering. Some of the biggest benefits of cryptocurrency is its security and relative anonymity. For this reason it is vital that wallet applications share the same properties. Our work, however, indicates that this is not the case. Five of the seven applications we tested do not implement basic security measures against reverse engineering. Three of the applications stored sensitive information, like wallet private keys, insecurely and one was …

Digital Forensic Readiness In Organizations: Issues And Challenges, Nickson Menza Karie, Simon Maina Karume Dr.

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

With the evolution in digital technologies, organizations have been forced to change the way they plan, develop, and enact their information technology strategies. This is because modern digital technologies do not only present new opportunities to business organizations but also a different set of issues and challenges that need to be resolved. With the rising threats of cybercrimes, for example, which have been accelerated by the emergence of new digital technologies, many organizations as well as law enforcement agencies globally are now erecting proactive measures as a way to increase their ability to respond to security incidents as well as …

Legislative Requirements For Cyber Peacekeeping, Nikolay Akatyev, Joshua I. James

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Cyber Peacekeeping strives for the prevention, mitigation and cessation of cyber and physical conflicts. The creation of a Cyber Peacekeeping organization, however, has major legal and political implications. In this work we review current international legislation applicable for functions of Cyber Peacekeeping. Specifically, we analyze prominent works which contribute to definitions, law and ethics regulating cyber conflicts from the perspective of the creation of a CPK organization. Legislative and terminological foundations are analyzed and adopted from current practice. Further, this work analyzes guiding principles of global organizations such as ITU IMPACT, INTERPOL and regional organizations such as NATO and the …

Forensic State Acquisition From Internet Of Things (Fsaiot): A General Framework And Practical Approach For Iot Forensics Through Iot Device State Acquisition, Christopher S. Meffert, Devon R. Clark, Ibrahim Baggili, Frank Breitinger

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

IoT device forensics is a difficult problem given that manufactured IoT devices are not standardized, many store little to no historical data, and are always connected; making them extremely volatile. The goal of this paper was to address these challenges by presenting a primary account for a general framework and practical approach we term Forensic State Acquisition from Internet of Things (FSAIoT). We argue that by leveraging the acquisition of the state of IoT devices (e.g. if an IoT lock is open or locked), it becomes possible to paint a clear picture of events that have occurred. To this end, …

Breaking Into The Vault: Privacy, Security And Forensic Analysis Of Android Vault Applications, Xiaolu Zhang, Ibrahim Baggili, Frank Breitinger

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

In this work we share the first account for the forensic analysis, security and privacy of Android vault applications. Vaults are designed to be privacy enhancing as they allow users to hide personal data but may also be misused to hide incriminating files. Our work has already helped law enforcement in the state of Connecticut to reconstruct 66 incriminating images and 18 videos in a single criminal case. We present case studies and results from analyzing 18 Android vault applications (accounting for nearly 220 million downloads from the Google Play store) by reverse engineering them and examining the forensic artifacts …

Digital Anti-Forensics: An Implementation And Examination, Stephanie Dachs

Student Theses

The rise of computer use and technical adeptness by the general public in the last two decades are undeniable. With greater use comes a greater possibility for misuse, evidenced by today’s incredible number of crimes involving computers as well as the growth in severity from that of cyber hooliganism to cyber warfare. Although frequently utilized for privacy and security purposes, the vast range of anti-forensic techniques has contributed to the ability for hackers and criminals to obstruct computer forensic investigations.

Understanding how anti-forensics may alter important and relevant data on an electronic device will prove useful for the success and …

Exploring Digital Evidence With Graph Theory, Imani Palmer, Boris Gelfand, Roy Campbell

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The analysis phase of the digital forensic process is the most complex. The analysis phase remains very subjective to the views of the forensic practitioner. There are many tools dedicated to assisting the investigator during the analysis process. However, they do not address the challenges. Digital forensics is in need of a consistent approach to procure the most judicious conclusions from the digital evidence. The objective of this paper is to discuss the ability of graph theory, a study of related mathematical structures, to aid in the analysis phase of the digital forensic process. We develop a graph-based representation of …

Case Study: A New Method For Investigating Crimes Against Children, Hallstein Asheim Hansen, Stig Andersen, Stefan Axelsson, Svein Hopland

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Investigations of crimes against children are often complex, both in terms of the varied and large amount of digital technology encountered and the offensive nature of the crimes. Such cases are numerous, large, and prioritised, requiring digital forensics competence. Earlier digital forensics was considered and treated as a typical forensic science like fingerprint analysis, performed in a laboratory isolated from the investigative team. This decoupled way of working has proved to be both inefficient and error prone.

At the Digital Forensic Unit of Oslo Police District we have developed a new way of working that addresses many of the problems …

Downstream Competence Challenges And Legal/Ethical Risks In Digital Forensics, Michael M. Losavio, Antonio Losavio

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Forensic practice is an inherently human-mediated system, from processing and collection of evidence to presentation and judgment. This requires attention to human factors and risks which can lead to incorrect judgments and unjust punishments.

For digital forensics, such challenges are magnified by the relative newness of the discipline and the use of electronic evidence in forensic proceedings. Traditional legal protections, rules of procedure and ethics rules mitigate these challenges. Application of those traditions better ensures forensic findings are reliable. This has significant consequences where findings may impact a person's liberty or property, a person's life or even the political direction …

Digital Forensics Tool Selection With Multi-Armed Bandit Problem, Umit Karabiyik, Tugba Karabiyik

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Digital forensics investigation is a long and tedious process for an investigator in general. There are many tools that investigators must consider, both proprietary and open source. Forensics investigators must choose the best tool available on the market for their cases to make sure they do not overlook any evidence resides in suspect device within a reasonable time frame. This is however hard decision to make, since learning and testing all available tools make their job only harder. In this project, we define the digital forensics tool selection for a specific investigative task as a multi-armed bandit problem assuming that …

Detecting Deception In Asynchronous Text, Fletcher Glancy

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Glancy and Yadav (2010) developed a computational fraud detection model (CFDM) that successfully detected financial reporting fraud in the text of the management’s discussion and analysis (MDA) portion of annual filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This work extends the use of the CFDM to additional genres, demonstrates the generalizability of the CFDM and the use of text mining for quantitatively detecting deception in asynchronous text. It also demonstrates that writers committing fraud use words differently from truth tellers.

Understanding Deleted File Decay On Removable Media Using Differential Analysis, James H. Jones Jr, Anurag Srivastava, Josh Mosier, Connor Anderson, Seth Buenafe

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Digital content created by picture recording devices is often stored internally on the source device, on either embedded or removable media. Such storage media is typically limited in capacity and meant primarily for interim storage of the most recent image files, and these devices are frequently configured to delete older files as necessary to make room for new files. When investigations involve such devices and media, it is sometimes these older deleted files that would be of interest. It is an established fact that deleted file content may persist in part or in its entirety after deletion, and identifying the …