The Definitive Guide to File System Analysis: Key Concepts and Hands-on Techniques Most digital evidence is stored within the computer's file system, but understanding how file systems work is one of the most technically challenging concepts for a digital investigator because there exists little documentation. Now, security expert Brian Carrier has written the definitive reference for everyone who wants to understand and be able to testify about how file system analysis is performed. Carrier begins with an overview of investigation and computer foundations and then gives an authoritative, comprehensive, and illustrated overview of contemporary volume and file systems: Crucial information for discovering hidden evidence, recovering deleted data, and validating your tools. Along the way, he describes data structures, analyzes example disk images, provides advanced investigation scenarios, and uses today's most valuable open source file system analysis toolsincluding tools he personally developed. 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.
Foreword.
Preface.
Acknowledgments.
I. FOUNDATIONS.
1. Digital Investigation Foundations.
Digital Investigations and Evidence.
Digital Crime Scene Investigation Process.
Data Analysis.
Overview of Toolkits.
Summary.
Bibliography.
2. Computer Foundations.
Data Organization.
Booting Process.
Hard Disk Technology.
Summary.
Bibiography.
3. Hard Disk Data Acquisition.
Introduction.
Reading the Source Data.
Writing the Output Data.
A Case Study Using dd.
Summary.
Bibliography.
II. VOLUME ANALYSIS.
4. Volume Analysis.
Introduction.
Background.
Analysis Basics.
Summary.
5. PC-based Partitions.
DOS Partitions.
Analysis Considerations.
Apple Partitions.
Removable Media.
Bibliography 109
6. Server-based Partitions.
BSD Partitions.
Sun Solaris Slices.
GPT Partitions.
Summary 145
Bibliography 145
7. Multiple Disk Volumes.
RAID.
Disk Spanning.
Bibliography.
III. FILE SYSTEM ANALYSIS.
8. File System Analysis.
What Is a File System?.
File System Category.
Content Category.
Metadata Category.
File Name Category.
Application Category.
Application-level Search Techniques.
Specific File Systems.
Summary.
Bibliography.
9. FAT Concepts and Analysis.
Introduction.
File System Category.
Content Category.
Metadata Category.
File Name Category.
The Big Picture.
Other Topics.
Summary.
Bibliography.
10. FAT Data Structures.
Boot Sector.
FAT32 FSINFO.
FAT.
Directory Entries.
Long File Name Directory Entries.
Summary.
Bibliography.
11. NTFS Concepts.
Introduction.
Everything is a File.
MFT Concepts.
MFT Entry Attribute Concepts.
Other Attribute Concepts.
Indexes.
Analysis Tools.
Summary.
Bibliography.
12. NTFS Analysis.
File System Category.
Content Category.
Metadata Category.
File Name Category.
Application Category.
The Big Picture.
Other Topics.
Summary.
Bibliography.
13. NTFS Data Structures.
Basic Concepts.
Standard File Attributes.
Index Attributes and Data Structures.
File System Metadata Files.
Summary.
Bibliography.
14. Ext2 and Ext3 Concepts and Analysis.
Introduction.
File System Category.
Content Category.
Metadata Category.
File Name Category.
Application Category.
The Big Picture.
Other Topics.
Summary.
Bibliography.
15. Ext2 and Ext3 Data Structures.
Superblock.
Group Descriptor Tables.
Block Bitmap.
Inodes.
Extended Attributes.
Directory Entry.
Symbolic Link.
Hash Trees.
Journal Data Structures.
Summary.
Bibliography.
16. UFS1 and UFS2 Concepts and Analysis.
Introduction.
File System Category.
Content Category.
Metadata Category.
File Name Category.
The Big Picture.
Other Topics.
Summary.
Bibliography.
17. UFS1 and UFS2 Data Structures.
UFS1 Superblock.
UFS2 Superblock.
Cylinder Group Summary.
UFS1 Group Descriptor.
UFS2 Group Descriptor.
Block and Fragment Bitmaps.
UFS1 Inodes.
UFS2 Inodes.
UFS2 Extended Attributes.
Directory Entries.
Summary.
Bibliography.
Appendix A. The Sleuth Kit and Autopsy.
The Sleuth Kit.
Autopsy.
Bibliography.
Index.
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