Introduction
Mobile forensics is the process of extracting, analyzing, and preserving data from mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. The goal of mobile forensics is to recover digital evidence that can be used in legal proceedings or investigations.
The process of mobile forensics typically involves several steps, including the physical acquisition of the device, the logical acquisition of data, and the analysis of the data. Physical acquisition involves taking possession of the device and making a physical image of its storage. Logical acquisition involves extracting data from the device using software tools, such as forensic software or specialized mobile forensic hardware. Analysis of the data involves using forensic software to examine the data and extract relevant information.
One of the biggest challenges in mobile forensics is the wide variety of devices and operating systems in use. Each device and operating system may have different methods for extracting data, and may also have built-in security features that must be bypassed in order to access the data. Additionally, mobile devices are often protected by passwords or other security measures, which can make it difficult to access the data stored on the device.
Mobile forensics is an important tool for law enforcement, criminal investigations, and other legal proceedings. It can be used to extract evidence such as text messages, call logs, photos, and videos, which can be used to build a case or to identify suspects. Additionally, mobile forensics can be used to extract data from devices that have been lost or stolen, which can be used to track the whereabouts of the device or to identify the person who has it.
However, it is important to remember that the use of mobile forensics should be done in a legal and ethical manner, and in accordance with the laws and regulations of the jurisdiction in which it is being used. Additionally, mobile forensics practitioners should be properly trained and certified in order to ensure that the process is done correctly and that the evidence obtained is admissible in court.
Mobile device forensics is a branch of digital forensics relating to recovery of digital evidence or data from a mobile device under forensically sound conditions. The phrase mobile device usually refers to mobile phones; however, it can also relate to any digital device that has both internal memory and communication ability, including PDA devices, GPS devices and tablet computers.
Types of evidence
As mobile device technology advances, the amount and types of data that can be found on a mobile device is constantly increasing. Evidence that can be potentially recovered from a mobile phone may come from several different sources, including handset memory, SIM card, and attached memory cards such as SD cards.
Traditionally mobile phone forensics has been associated with recovering SMS and MMS messaging, as well as call logs, contact lists and phone IMEI/ESN information. However, newer generations of smartphones also include wider varieties of information; from web browsing, Wireless network settings, geolocation information (including geotags contained within image metadata), e-mail and other forms of rich internet media, including important data -- such as social networking service posts and contacts -- now retained on smartphone 'apps'.
Forensic process
Internal memory Nowadays mostly flash memory consisting of NAND or NOR types are used for mobile devices. For a wide overview on NAND flash forensics see Salvatore Fiorillo,
External memory
External memory devices are SIM cards, SD cards (commonly found within GPS devices as well as mobile phones), MMC cards, CF cards, and the Memory Stick.
Service provider logs
Although not technically part of mobile device forensics, the call detail records (and occasionally, text messages) from wireless carriers often serve as "back up" evidence obtained after the mobile phone has been seized. These are useful when the call history and/or text messages have been deleted from the phone, or when location-based services are not turned on. Call detail records and cell site (tower) dumps can show the phone owner's location, and whether they were stationary or moving (i.e., whether the phone's signal bounced off the same side of a single tower, or different sides of multiple towers along a particular path of travel).[7] Carrier data and device data together can be used to corroborate information from other sources, for instance, video surveillance footage or eyewitness accounts; or to determine the general location where a non-geotagged image or video was taken.
The European Union requires its member countries to retain certain telecommunications data for use in investigations. This includes data on calls made and retrieved. The location of a mobile phone can be determined and this geographical data must also be retained. In the United States, however, no such requirement exists, and no standards govern how long carriers should retain data or even what they must retain. For example, text messages may be retained only for a week or two, while call logs may be retained anywhere from a few weeks to several months. To reduce the risk of evidence being lost, law enforcement agents must submit a preservation letter to the carrier, which they then must back up with a search warrant.
Forensic process
The forensics process for mobile devices broadly matches other branches of digital forensics; however, some particular concerns apply. Generally, the process can be broken down into three main categories: seizure, acquisition, and examination/analysis. Other aspects of the computer forensic process, such as intake, validation, documentation/reporting, and archiving still apply.
Seizure
Seizing mobile devices is covered by the same legal considerations as other digital media. Mobiles will often be recovered switched on; as the aim of seizure is to preserve evidence, the device will often be transported in the same state to avoid a shutdown, which would change files.In addition, the investigator or first responder would risk user lock activation.
However, leaving the phone on carries another risk: the device can still make a network/cellular connection. This may bring in new data, overwriting evidence. To prevent a connection, mobile devices will often be transported and examined from within a Faraday cage (or bag). Even so, there are two disadvantages to this method. First, it renders the device unusable, as its touch screen or keypad cannot be used. Second, a device's search for a network connection will drain its battery more quickly. While devices and their batteries can often be recharged, again, the investigator risks that the phone's user lock will have activated. Therefore, network isolation is advisable either through placing the device in Airplane Mode, or cloning its SIM card (a technique which can also be useful when the device is missing its SIM card entirely).
Acquisition
The second step in the forensic process is acquisition, in this case usually referring to retrieval of material from a device (as compared to the bit-copy imaging used in computer forensics).
Due to the proprietary nature of mobiles it is often not possible to acquire data with it powered down; most mobile device acquisition is performed live. With more advanced smartphones using advanced memory management, connecting it to a recharger and putting it into a faraday cage may not be good practice. The mobile device would recognize the network disconnection and therefore it would change its status information that can trigger the memory manager to write data.
Most acquisition tools for mobile devices are commercial in nature and consist of a hardware and software component, often automated.
As an increasing number of mobile devices use high-level file systems, similar to the file systems of computers, methods and tools can be taken over from hard disk forensics or only need slight changes.
The FAT file system is generally used on NAND memory. A difference is the block size used, which is larger than 512 bytes for hard disks and depends on the used memory type, e.g., NOR type 64, 128, 256 and NAND memory 16, 128, 256, or 512 kilobyte.
Different software tools can extract the data from the memory image. One could use specialized and automated forensic software products or generic file viewers such as any hex editor to search for characteristics of file headers. The advantage of the hex editor is the deeper insight into the memory management, but working with a hex editor means a lot of handwork and file system as well as file header knowledge. In contrast, specialized forensic software simplifies the search and extracts the data but may not find everything. AccessData, Sleuthkit, and EnCase, to mention only some, are forensic software products to analyze memory images.Since there is no tool that extracts all possible information, it is advisable to use two or more tools for examination. There is currently (February 2010) no software solution to get all evidences from flash memories.
Data acquisition types
Mobile device data extraction can be classified according to a continuum, along which methods become more technical and "forensically sound," tools become more expensive, analysis takes longer, examiners need more training, and some methods can even become more invasive.
Manual acquisition
The examiner utilizes the user interface to investigate the content of the phone's memory. Therefore the device is used as normal, with the examiner taking pictures of each screen's contents. This method has an advantage in that the operating system makes it unnecessary to use specialized tools or equipment to transform raw data into human interpretable information. In practice this method is applied to cell phones, PDAs and navigation systems.[14] Disadvantages are that only data visible to the operating system can be recovered; that all data are only available in form of pictures; and the process itself is time-consuming.
Logical acquisitionLogical acquisition implies a bit-by-bit copy of logical storage objects (e.g., directories and files) that reside on a logical store (e.g., a file system partition). Logical acquisition has the advantage that system data structures are easier for a tool to extract and organize. Logical extraction acquires information from the device using the original equipment manufacturer application programming interface for synchronizing the phone's contents with a personal computer. A logical extraction is generally easier to work with as it does not produce a large binary blob. However, a skilled forensic examiner will be able to extract far more information from a physical extraction.
File system acquisitionLogical extraction usually does not produce any deleted information, due to it normally being removed from the phone's file system. However, in some cases -- particularly with platforms built on SQLite, such as iOS and Android -- the phone may keep a database file of information which does not overwrite the information but simply marks it as deleted and available for later overwriting. In such cases, if the device allows file system access through its synchronization interface, it is possible to recover deleted information. File system extraction is useful for understanding the file structure, web browsing history, or app usage, as well as providing the examiner with the ability to perform an analysis with traditional computer forensic tools.
Physical acquisition
Physical acquisition implies a bit-for-bit copy of an entire physical store (e.g. flash memory); therefore, it is the method most similar to the examination of a personal computer. A physical acquisition has the advantage of allowing deleted files and data remnants to be examined. Physical extraction acquires information from the device by direct access to the flash memories.
Generally this is harder to achieve because the device original equipment manufacturer needs to secure against arbitrary reading of memory; therefore, a device may be locked to a certain operator. To get around this security, mobile forensics tool vendors often develop their own boot loaders, enabling the forensic tool to access the memory (and often, also to bypass user passcodes or pattern locks).
Generally the physical extraction is split into two steps, the dumping phase and the decoding phase.