forensic analysis

This is an advanced cookbook and reference guide for digital forensic practitioners. File System Forensic Analysis focuses on the file system and disk. The file system of a computer is where most files are stored and where most evidence is found; it also the most technically challenging part of forensic analysis. This book offers an overview and detailed knowledge of the file system and disc layout. The overview will allow an investigator to more easily find evidence, recover deleted data, and validate his tools. The cookbook section will show how to use the many open source tools for analysis, many of which Brian Carrier has developed himself.

Coverage includes:

• Preserving the digital crime scene and duplicating hard disks for “dead analysis”
• Identifying hidden data on a disk’s Host Protected Area (HPA)
• Reading source data: Direct versus BIOS access, dead versus live acquisition, error handling, and more
• Analyzing DOS, Apple, and GPT partitions; BSD disk labels; and Sun Volume Table of Contents using key concepts, data structures, and specific techniques
• Analyzing the contents of multiple disk volumes, such as RAID and disk spanning
• Analyzing FAT, NTFS, Ext2, Ext3, UFS1, and UFS2 file systems using key concepts, data structures, and specific techniques
• Finding evidence: File metadata, recovery of deleted files, data hiding locations, and more
• Using The Sleuth Kit (TSK), Autopsy Forensic Browser, and related open source tools

When it comes to file system analysis, no other book offers this much detail or expertise. Whether you’re a digital forensics specialist, incident response team member, law enforcement officer, corporate security specialist, or auditor, this book will become an indispensable resource for forensic investigations, no matter what analysis tools you use.