

This article will discuss some of the steps involved and areas of interest when conducting an analysis of an iOS device for Internet related activity. Similar to yours was able to guarantee evidence turnaround time within 48.Regardless of the statistics, if you are an active forensic examiner, chances are very high you will need to conduct an examination of an iOS mobile device (if you haven’t several times already). Join the Oxygen Forensics and DataExpert representatives to see how you can. IKAR Lab makes it possible to perform an in-depth analysis of voice and speech by.
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An examiner can also look for backups on a computer the device has previously been connected to as another step to analyze data from the device without having access to the device itself.Windows XP: c:Documents and Settings\Application DataApple ComputerMobileSyncBackupWindows Vista/7/8: c:users\AppDataRoamingApple ComputerMobileSyncBackupOSX: ~/Library/Application Support/MobilSync/BackupDepending on the version of iOS & iTunes, the backup can be protected with a password, which is used to encrypt the backed up data. For example, EnCase v7 can acquire an iOS device using this technology (requires iTunes to be installed, but not running). The result of using one of these tools would either be a bit stream (dd) or a DMG image file that could then be analyzed manually or using a forensic analysis tool.A file system dump, which is a subset of a physical image, could be performed by several well-known tools such as Cellebrite, Blacklight, Oxygen or XRY.Apple file connection (AFC) is used with iTunes to conduct a device backup and can be used to perform a backup of data from the device. File dump vs AFC file backupDepending on the type of investigation, the tools you have available and the version of the iOS phone you need to examine, you may have a choice whether to conduct a physical memory extraction, a file system dump or an Apple File Connection (AFC) backup.When possible, it would be recommended to obtain a full physical memory extraction since that will likely contain data that the file system dump & AFC backup does not (deleted file system data, etc.).This would typically be accomplished using a tool such as Cellebrite, XRY, Lantern, Elcomsoft, MPE or the Zdziarski method 1. Depending on the iOS version, device hardware version and passcode complexity, the passcode can sometimes be obtained by the forensic tool (such as Cellebrite) using a bruteforce attack. A complex alphanumeric passcode or passphraseIn many cases, you will need the passcode in order to obtain a physical image or a file system dump.
NSFileProtectionCompleteThe file is stored in an encrypted format on disk and cannot be read from or written to while the device is locked or booting.Declared in NSFileManager.h. It can be read from or written to at any time.Declared in NSFileManager.h. IOS 5 introduced an additional layer of protection by encrypting files with individual keys.Apple has defined four levels (classes) of protection for user data: NSFileProtectionNoneThe file has no special protections associated with it. This means that the physical device is needed in order to get all the components (keys) to successfully decrypt files that are protected with this level of encryption. With the introduction of the iPhone 3GS (and continuing to the current iPhone 5 hardware device), Apple began including a hardware key that is used as part of the encryption process. File System EncryptionStarting with iOS 4 Apple began providing data protection for user data by encrypting the user partition.
Each installed user application can dictate what class level to store the data generated by that application, but many use the default.The other levels of data protection incorporate the use of the hardware key that is unique for each particular device. This level is not really meant to protect data, but rather provide a quick way to render data unreadable/unrecoverable. This level uses individual keys for each file, but the keys are protected with a single system key so all the user data can be easily ‘erased’ during a reset (not really erased, it just deletes the system key and therefore the individual keys and data can never be recovered), but the key is easily viewed forensically since the system key can easily be obtained, without the need of the hardware key on the device itself. After the user unlocks the device for the first time, your app can access the file and continue to access it even if the user subsequently locks the device.The default class for all files that are not otherwise assigned to a different data protection class is NSFileProtectionNone. NSFileProtectionCompleteUntilFirstUserAuthenticationThe file is stored in an encrypted format on disk and cannot be accessed until after the device has booted. Once open, your file may continue to access the file normally, even if the user locks the device.Declared in NSFileManager.h.
IEF now looks for the associated. IOS Decryption with IEF 6.1.1Internet Evidence Finder 6.1.1 introduced the ability to search an iOS image and files that may be protected with data encryption by providing the keys that are obtained by Cellebrite during the physical extraction process. If you have the device passcode and can obtain a file dump, you can however analyze the logical files, but will not be able to search unallocated.
Loading a file dump into Internet Evidence FinderIf you have obtained a logical file dump, you can follow the same steps as above, but instead choose the “File Dump” option and select the root folder that contains all the files you want to analyze. You can point IEF directly to a bin, dmg or dd file. From the main splash screen, simple choose the “Mobile” option, iOS, then “Images”. Loading an iOS image into Internet Evidence FinderMobile phone support was added in IEF v6.1 and loading an image of an iOS device is very similar to loading an image of a hard drive. UFD file and IEF can now use those keys to decrypt data that is protected by only the system key. The necessary keys are recorded in the.
Special thanks to Ryan Kubasiak from Blackbag Technologies for some of the detailed iOS encryption information and document references.1Jail breaking could be another option, but is outside of the scope of this article and will not be discussed. You can reach me anytime at lance(at) magnetforensics(dot)com. UFD file and use any keys that are present to decrypt user data.Use IEF Advanced and choose the ‘iOS’->’File Dump’ option, point IEF to the root of the file dump folder.Use IEF Standard or IEF Advanced and choose the ‘iOS Backup’ from the Mobile Backups artifact category.As always, I appreciate the feedback, comments or questions. UFD file, make sure it is in the same directory as the cellebrite physical image file (.bin) and IEF will automatically look for the. If you used a Cellebrite UFED to extract the physical image and have the associated. Therefore, to include iOS backup files in the artifact search, select the computer hard drive from the main “Images” option, then be sure and select the “iOS backups” option from the artifact selection screen: SummaryDepending on how you have acquired data from the iOS device, you have three distinct options to analyze it with IEF.Physical Image (bin file from Cellebrite, DMG from Lantern or other ‘dd’ type image)Use IEF Advanced and choose the ‘iOS’->’Images’ option.
