Encase imager and ftk imager live practical computer. Based on trusted, industrystandard encase forensic acquisition technology, encase forensic imager. How to convert encase, ftk, dd, raw, vmware and other image. Ftk imager is a free t ool developed by the access data group for creating disk images access data, n. Ftk is a courtcited digital investigations platform built for speed, stability and ease of use. Evidence acquisition using accessdata ftk imager forensic. Encase imager and ftk imager live practical in this video i have explained how to use encase imager and how to use ftk imager and i have also provided download link of ftk imager version 3. Forensic notes makes documentation easy from the beginning through the end of a case, and its a solid system at that. I would like to analyze this image by using other tools. Ive spent significant time with both encase 6 and 7.
Comparison of the data recovery function of forensic. Ftk runs in windows operating systems and provides a very powerful tool set to acquire and examine electronic media. Jason hale talks about memory acquisition and virtual secure fashion. Ftk imager can acquire live memory and paging file on 32bit and 64bit systems. Ad1 dd and raw images unixlinux forensic file format.
Real time means that data is compressed and decompressed as it is written and read. Brett muir wrote a great blog post called encase imager vs. This software will miss bad sectors writing zeros instead. Guidance software encase forensic imager is used by computer forensic experts to gather evidence from storage media. Encase is a very difficult program to use, and it seems to. The purpose of this document is to detail the steps that are required to mount an encase e01 logical image with ftk imager. I also use ftk imager to verify images when working onsite. I have used ftk before, now use encase and xways for encase and xways, can it do live imaging of linux memory.
This list contains a total of 4 apps similar to forensic toolkit ftk. There is much usage of encase for mobile forensics. How to verify the md5 hash value of an image accessdata. Mount image pro mounts encase, ftk, dd, raw, smart, safeback, iso, vmware and other image files as a drive letter or physical drive on your computer. Efense is a company dedicated to creating different tools for forensic investigators. Why is ftk imager better for you than encase imager on linux. The latest versions of encase sometimes are not compatible with other forensic based tools. The forensic toolkit, or ftk, is a computer forensic investigation software package created by accessdata. Forensic imager is a windows based program that will acquire, convert, or verify a forensic image in one of the following common forensic file formats.
All devices are blocked in readonly mode, by default. Youll close cases faster and reduce your case backlog by focusing on analyzing. Click on button capture memory how the picture below. Forensic tool kit ftk ftk offers law enforcement and corporate security professionals the ability to perform complete and thorough computer forensic examinations. Encase imager does offer some new imaging formats that essentially allows you encrypt the image file during creation but then any data that sensitive should be stored on a encrypted volume anyway. The owner, accessdata, also make the solid product ftk imager available for free. Ftk imager an export hash list feature, which can be used to export a list of the hashes md5 and sha1 respectively of all the files on the image. Overall, ftk is a very good tool for its features and price.
An example of a metadata file associated with a raw image generated by access data os ftk imager is shown in figure 4. Mount a full disk image with its partitions all at once. One of my favorite tools to image with is the ftk imager command line program. Linux distributionen wie deft oder paladin bringen diese kernelparameter ubrigens schon mit. Nij, 2008, a forensic copy was made of each virtual hard drive vmdk file using accessdata ftk imager cli 2. Quite simply put its a hog aside from very high system requirements its significantly slower than either of the other tools in most respects, and i find doing most standard forensics tasks slower in ftk than either encase or xways. Accordingly, you must comply with access datas license agreements. Yes, you can opt for gui friendly, allinclusive ftk paid gui or encase imager suite, but if you are familiar working with a linux system and stick. They have recently expanded to offer cloud forensic capabilities. Encase portable is a powerful solution, that allows forensic professionals and nonexperts alike to quickly and easily triage and collect vital data in a forensically sound and courtproven manner. Ftk imager will read or write image files in encase, dd raw, smart, and ftk image formats. So, i need to convert e01 image file to dd format without any alteration. Ftk imager digital forensics computer forensics blog. Aug 22, 2019 forensic notes makes documentation easy from the beginning through the end of a case, and its a solid system at that.
To output the image verification hashes to a text file, follow the steps below. Forensic toolkit ftk alternatives and similar software. Better first copy the image to your local sataide hdd. Ssh server disabled by default see manual page for enabling it. They can help you resolve any questions or problems you may have regarding these solutions. I have had issues with encase when mounting severely nested archives. Due to a buffer overflow flaw in this product an attacker can manipulate a. Now you have an evidence item in the form of the image of the usb drive. Dd raw linux disk dump aff advanced forensic format e01 encase program functions. Ftk imager, where he concludes that he would still turn to ftk imager over encase for several reasons.
Encase has its own image format while ftk does not have its own image format. A sound forensic practice is to acquire copies images of. Encase is the shared technology within a suite of digital investigations products by guidance software now acquired by opentext. Im working on forensics tools and i have encase e01 type image file. Ftk, ftk pro, enterprise, ediscovery, lab and the entire resolution one platform. Encase uses its own search engine, live and indexed search supported. First download ftk imager from here a nd install in your pc. Though weve established just how versatile a toolkit ftk is for forensic investigations, it is never a good idea to start feeding it the original files. This option is most frequently used in live data acquisition where the evidence pclaptop is switched on. The standard linux location would be home although that may be different if you are in a corporate environment, so that if you are trying to save the raw file as nps in your own downloads directory the full path and filename with extension will probably be something like homemanudownloadsnps. Forensic acquisition an overview sciencedirect topics. Ive not spent any time using ftk other than ftk imager.
A comparison of computer forensic tools marshall university. Encase imager and ftk imager live practical in this video i have explained how to use encase imager and how to use ftk imager and i have also. Image creation tools will be described in more detail in section 4. It comes in the form of a cd which the investigator puts into the computer. Clearly the results for ftk are an outlier and may need to be reexamined.
Booting up evidence e01 image using free tools ftk imager. After you create an image of the data, use forensic toolkit ftk to perform a thorough forensic examination and create a report of. After you create an image of the data, use forensic toolkit ftk to perform a thorough forensic examination and create a report. Features of mount image pro it enables the mounting of forensic images including. Extracting data from damaged hard drives digital forensics. This cd is loaded with different digital forensic tools to help the investigator. Imaging the hard drive can be done forensically sound via thunderbolt, another mac, and target disk mode. Youll close cases faster and reduce your case backlog by focusing on analyzing potential evidence, not searching through data. Brett shavers digital forensics practitioner, author, and instructor i have been in situations were having case notes saved me, and. An image with this format starts with case information in the header and footer, which contains an md5 hash of the entire bit stream. Due to the recent changes with apple technology and recent security features included in macos, we have extended the capabilities of our software to meet these new challenges and have released recon itr. Encase processing can take a lot of time in case of very large compound files and mail boxes. This means that even if another organization or person with different software created a forensic image, you could still view the image file and determine if there was any evidence on media. Can the sift workstation hash and image an evidence item in a forensically sound.
In this case the source disk should be mounted into the investigators. Physical memory is commonly acquired using a softwarebased memory acquisition tool such as winpmem, dumpit, magnet ram capturer, ftk imager, or one of the several other options available. Encase has its own image format encase image file format used to store various types of digital evidence. Aug 25, 2012 avoid running encase on image located at a usb hdd. Mar 02, 2018 using ftk imager portable version in a usb pen drive or hdd and opening it directly from the evidence machine. Jan 11, 2016 why is ftk imager better for you than encase imager on linux. Ftk leverages multimachine processing capabilities, cutting case processing times more than 400% vs. Encase forensic imager buffer overflow vulnerability youtube. Alternatives to forensic toolkit ftk for windows, mac, linux, software as a service saas, web and more. I did have a couple of problems with ftk imager on a live system recently but i worked around it. Brett shavers digital forensics practitioner, author, and instructor i have been in situations were having case notes saved me, and seen where not having them has led to issues for others. Oct 07, 20 ftk supports more image formats than encase. Filter by license to discover only free or open source alternatives.
Installing ftk imager lite in linux command line using the sans sift workstation you have many options available when you are trying to image a hard drive, no matter if it is. Encase also verifies the drive image with the original drive using md5 and. Bruteforcing linux full disk encryption luks with hashcat. Neither encase nor ftk does a very good job of reporting on problems or errors the products may encounter. When ftk or encase create split images they default to a naming convention. Skip to step 6 just to see the mounting and imaging. The software comes in several products designed for forensic, cyber security, security analytics, and ediscovery use.
Ftk cannot handle compressed drives like doublespace doublespace is a technology that compresses data stored by the fat file system in real time. A sound forensic practice is to acquire copies images of the affected systems data and operate on those copies. It is a fully featured security distribution based on debian consisting of a powerful bunch of more than 300 open source and free tools that can be used for various purposes including, but not limited to, penetration testing, ethical hacking, system and network administration, cyber forensics investigations, security testing, vulnerability analysis, and much more. Why the ability to mount an image, not just with ftk imager, can provide the following benefits. Truth be told i really preferred the layout of ftk 1. Encase is a very difficult program to use, and it seems to me that it might deter from your presentation. Encase and ftk are designed to help an examiner fully process a. Dec 17, 20 it comes in the form of a cd which the investigator puts into the computer. When time is short and you need to acquire entire volumes or selected individual folders or files, encase forensic imager is your tool of choice.
It has features similar to ftk imager and winhex helix is made by the company efense. Avoid running encase on image located at a usb hdd. Support for apfs snapshots and extended attributes from macs with t2 chipsets. To observe the principles of digital forensic acquisition and analysis acpo, 2006. Using ftk imager portable version in a usb pen drive or hdd and opening it directly from the evidence machine. In regard to the each memory file vmem and network capture pcap file, a forensic copy was made using encase. May 11, 2017 guidance software encase forensic imager is used by computer forensic experts to gather evidence from storage media.