Topic02 Data Acquisition

Data Acquisition
Dr. Abu Sayed Md. Mostafizur Rahaman

Professor
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Jahangirnagar University
Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations Six Edition [email protected] 1

OBJECTIVES
 List digital evidence storage formats

 Explain ways to determine the best acquisition method
 Describe contingency planning for data acquisitions
 Explain how to use acquisition tools (See optional slides)
 Describe RAID acquisition methods
 Explain how to validate data acquisitions
 Explain how to use remote network acquisition tools
 List other forensic tools available for data acquisitions (See
optional slides)

DATA ACQUISITION
 Data acquisition is the process of copying data. For digital

forensics, it’s the task of collecting digital evidence from
electronic media.
 There are two types of data acquisition:
– Static acquisitions and
– Live acquisitions.

UNDERSTANDING STORAGE FORMATS FOR DIGITAL
EVIDENCE
 Data in a forensics acquisition tool is stored as an image file
 Three formats
– Raw format
– Proprietary formats
– Advanced Forensics Format (AFF)

RAW FORMAT
 Makes it possible to write bit-stream data to files

 Advantages
– Fast data transfers
– Ignores minor data read errors on source drive
– Most computer forensics tools can read raw format
 Disadvantages
– Requires as much storage as original disk or data
– Tools might not collect marginal (bad) sectors

PROPRIETARY FORMATS
 Most forensics tools have their own formats

 Features offered
– Option to compress or not compress image files
– Can split an image into smaller segmented files
– Can integrate metadata into the image file
 Disadvantages
– Inability to share an image between different tools
– File size limitation for each segmented volume
 The Expert Witness format is unofficial standard

ADVANCED FORENSICS FORMAT
 Developed by Dr. Simson L. Garfinkel as an open-source

acquisition format
 Design goals
– Provide compressed or uncompressed image files
– No size restriction for disk-to-image files
– Provide space in the image file or segmented files for metadata
– Simple design with extensibility
– Open source for multiple platforms and OSs

DETERMINING THE BEST ACQUISITION METHOD
 Types of acquisitions
– Static acquisitions and live acquisitions
 Four methods of data collection
– Creating a disk-to-image file
– Creating a disk-to-disk
– Creating a logical disk-to-disk or disk-to-data file
– Creating a sparse data copy of a file or folder
 Determining the best method depends on the circumstances
of the investigation
– consider the size of the source (suspect) disk, whether you can retain
the source disk as evidence or must return it to the owner, how much
time you have to perform the acquisition, and where the evidence is
located.
 Creating a disk-to-image file

– Most common method and offers most flexibility
– Can make more than one copy
– Copies are bit-for-bit replications of the original drive
– ProDiscover, EnCase, FTK, SMART, Sleuth Kit, X-Ways, iLookIX
 Creating a disk-to-disk
– When disk-to-image copy is not possible
– Tools can adjust disk’s geometry configuration
– EnCase, SafeBack, SnapCopy, X-Ways Forensics

 Logical acquisition or sparse acquisition

– Can take several hours; use when your time is limited
– Logical acquisition captures only specific files of interest to the case
– Sparse acquisition collects fragments of unallocated (deleted) data
– For large disks
– PST or OST mail files, RAID servers

DETERMINING THE BEST ACQUISITION METHOD-
RECOMMENDATION
 When making a copy, consider:
– Size of the source disk
• Lossless compression might be useful
• Use digital signatures for verification
– whether you can retain the source disk as evidence or must return it to
the owner
– how much time you have to perform the acquisition, and where the
evidence is located.

CONTINGENCY PLANNING FOR IMAGE ACQUISITIONS
 Create a duplicate copy of your evidence image file

 Make at least two images of digital evidence
– Use different tools or techniques
 Copy host protected area of a disk drive as well
– Consider using a hardware acquisition tool that can access the drive
at the BIOS level
 Be prepared to deal with encrypted drives
– Whole disk encryption feature in Windows called BitLocker makes
static acquisitions more difficult
– May require user to provide decryption key

PERFORMING RAID DATA ACQUISITIONS
 Acquisition of RAID drives can be challenging and frustrating

because of how RAID systems are
– Designed
– Configured
– Sized
 Size is the biggest concern
– Many RAID systems now have terabytes of data

UNDERSTANDING RAID
 Redundant array of independent (formerly “inexpensive”)

disks (RAID)
– Computer configuration involving two or more disks
– Originally developed as a data-redundancy measure
 RAID 0
– Provides rapid access and increased storage
– Biggest disadvantage is lack of redundancy
 RAID 1
– Designed for data recovery
– More expensive than RAID 0

UNDERSTANDING RAID

UNDERSTANDING RAID
 RAID 2
– Similar to RAID 1
– Data is written to a disk on a bit level
– Has better data integrity checking than RAID 0
– Slower than RAID 0
 RAID 3
– Uses data stripping and dedicated parity
 RAID 4
– Data is written in blocks

UNDERSTANDING RAID

UNDERSTANDING RAID
 RAID 5
– Similar to RAIDs 0 and 3
– Places parity recovery data on each disk
 RAID 6
– Redundant parity on each disk
 RAID 10, or mirrored striping
– Also known as RAID 1+0
– Combination of RAID 1 and RAID 0

UNDERSTANDING RAID

ACQUIRING RAID DISKS
 Address the following concerns

– How much data storage is needed?
– What type of RAID is used?
– Do you have the right acquisition tool?
– Can the tool read a forensically copied RAID image?
– Can the tool read split data saves of each RAID disk?
 Copying small RAID systems to one large disk is possible

ACQUIRING RAID DISKS
 Vendors offering RAID acquisition functions

– Technology Pathways ProDiscover
– Guidance Software EnCase
– X-Ways Forensics
– AccessData FTK
– Runtime Software
– R-Tools Technologies
 Occasionally, a RAID system is too large for a static
acquisition
– Retrieve only the data relevant to the investigation with the sparse or
logical acquisition method

VALIDATING DATA ACQUISITIONS
 Validating evidence may be the most critical aspect of

computer forensics
 Requires using a hashing algorithm utility
 Validation techniques
– CRC-32, MD5, and SHA-1 to SHA-512

WINDOWS VALIDATION METHODS
 Windows has no built-in hashing algorithm tools for computer

forensics
– Third-party utilities can be used
 Commercial computer forensics programs also have built-in
validation features
– Each program has its own validation technique
 Raw format image files don’t contain metadata
– Separate manual validation is recommended for all raw acquisitions

LINUX VALIDATION METHODS
 Validating dd acquired data

– You can use md5sum or sha1sum utilities
– md5sum or sha1sum utilities should be run on all suspect disks and
volumes or segmented volumes
 Validating dcfldd acquired data
– Use the hash option to designate a hashing algorithm of md5, sha1,
sha256, sha384, or sha512
– hashlog option outputs hash results to a text file that can be stored
with the image files
– vf (verify file) option compares the image file to the original medium

REMOTE NETWORK ACQUISITION
 You can remotely connect to a suspect computer via a

network connection and copy data from it
 Remote acquisition tools vary in configurations and
capabilities
 Drawbacks
– Antivirus, antispyware, and firewall tools can be configured to ignore
remote access programs
– Suspects could easily install their own security tools that trigger an
alarm to notify them of remote access intrusions
 Remote Network Acquisition tools (See optional Slides)

SOURCEFORGE
 SourceForge provides several applications for security,

analysis, and investigations
 For a list of current tools, see:
– http://sourceforge.net/directory/security-utilities/storage/archiving/os:
windows/freshness:recently-updated/directory/security-utilities/
storage/archiving/os:windows/freshness:recently-updated

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Data Acquisition

Dr. Abu Sayed Md. Mostaﬁzur Rahaman

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations Six Edition [email protected] 1

 List digital evidence storage formats

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations Six Edition [email protected] 2

 Data acquisition is the process of copying data. For digital

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations Six Edition [email protected] 3

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations Six Edition [email protected] 4

 Makes it possible to write bit-stream data to ﬁles

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations Six Edition [email protected] 5

 Most forensics tools have their own formats

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations Six Edition [email protected] 6

 Developed by Dr. Simson L. Garﬁnkel as an open-source

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations Six Edition [email protected] 7

 Creating a disk-to-image ﬁle

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations Six Edition [email protected] 9

 Logical acquisition or sparse acquisition

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations Six Edition [email protected] 10

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations Six Edition [email protected] 11

 Create a duplicate copy of your evidence image ﬁle

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations Six Edition [email protected] 12

 Acquisition of RAID drives can be challenging and frustrating

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations Six Edition [email protected] 13

 Redundant array of independent (formerly “inexpensive”)

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations Six Edition [email protected] 14

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations Six Edition [email protected] 15

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations Six Edition [email protected] 16

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations Six Edition [email protected] 17

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations Six Edition [email protected] 18

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations Six Edition [email protected] 19

 Address the following concerns

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations Six Edition [email protected] 20

 Vendors offering RAID acquisition functions

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations Six Edition [email protected] 21

 Validating evidence may be the most critical aspect of

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations Six Edition [email protected] 22

 Windows has no built-in hashing algorithm tools for computer

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations Six Edition [email protected] 23

 Validating dd acquired data

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations Six Edition [email protected] 24

 You can remotely connect to a suspect computer via a

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations Six Edition [email protected] 25

 SourceForge provides several applications for security,

Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations Six Edition [email protected] 26

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