Forensic Investigation Tools: A data breach occurs in an app almost every day. Among the biggest data breaches are;
- JP Morgan Chase.
- Bank of America.
- HSBC.
- TD Bank.
- Target.
- Tumbler.
- Home Depot.
- MySpace.
- eBay.
- Adobe System Inc.
- iMesh.
Juniper Research says cybercrime will cost businesses more than $5 trillion by 2024. The need for computer forensic experts will thus grow. The administrator’s best buddy is a tool; employing the correct tool always helps you move things along more quickly and makes you more productive. Forensic investigation is always difficult as you may gather all the information you need for the evidence and mitigation plan. Here are some tools you’d need as a computer forensic investigator. Nearly all of them are free!
The Best Free Forensic Investigation Tools
We’ve compiled a list of free Forensic Investigation Tools to help you find the right one.
1. Autopsy
A GUI-based open source digital forensic program called Autopsy can quickly and effectively examine cellphones and hard disks. Thousands of people use Autospy to investigate what happens on the computer worldwide. Corporate investigators and the military use some of the features to investigate.
- Email analysis.
- File type detection.
- Media playback.
- Registry analysis.
- Photos recovery from memory card.
- Extract geolocation and camera information from JPEG files.
- Extract web activity from a browser.
- Show system events in a graphical interface.
- Timeline analysis.
- Extract data from Android – SMS, call logs, contacts, etc.
It can create a lot of reports in HTML and XLS file formats.
2. Kit Forensic
Kit Forensic from Passware is a top tool to investigate severe concerns and is used by law enforcement authorities like the FBI, Europol, etc. Its password recovery feature works with over 340 applications, including Microsoft Office, Bitcoin wallets, Mac OS X Keychain, the best password managers, PDF, BitLocker, and more.
One of Kit Forensic’s standout features is its live memory analysis, which helps you extract passwords and encryption keys from a disk image. Additionally, this works to break down full disk encryption used by tools like BitLocker, TrueCrypt, Apple DMG disk, LUKS(2), McAfee, etc.
Depending on what you need to decode, this forensic investigation tool is available in various flavors, from Kit Basic to Kit Forensic. You may also download the free, constrained-featured edition to sample one of the most potent research tools.
3. Network Miner
An intriguing network forensic analyzer for Windows, Linux & MAC OS X to detect OS, hostname, sessions, and open ports using packet sniffing or through PCAP files. Network Miner presents extracted artifacts in a simple user interface.
4. Forensic Investigator
Forensic Investigator will be a practical tool if you use Splunk. It is a Splunk app and contains a variety of tools.
- WHOIS/GeoIP lookup.
- Ping.
- Port scanner.
- Banner grabber.
- URL decoder/parser.
- XOR/HEX/Base64 converter.
- SMB Share/NetBIOS viewer.
- Virus Total lookup.
5. FAW
FAW (Forensics Acquisition of Websites), which contains the following features, is to acquire web pages for forensic research.
- Capture all or a portion of the page.
- Obtain every kind of image.
- Capture the web page’s HTML source code.
- Sync up with Wireshark.
6. HashMyFiles
You may compute the MD5, and SHA1 hashes with the aid of HashMyFiles. On almost all of the latest Windows operating systems, it works.
7. Crowd Response
Response by Crowd Strike is a Windows app that collects system data for incident response and security engagements. With the aid of CRConvert, you may examine the results in XML, CSV, TSV, or HTML. It works with Windows XP or later in 32 or 64-bit. There are further investigative techniques available in Crowd Strike.
- TCP/IP and DNS communication may be anonymously routed over Tor using totrtilla.
- Scan Your Network for Shellshock Vulnerabilities using the Shellshock Scanner.
- Check your network for the OpenSSL heart bleed vulnerability with the heartbleed scanner.
8. SIFT
It is free to download the SIFT (SANS investigative forensic toolset) workstation using Ubuntu 14.04. It is one of the most well-known open source incident response platforms and a set of forensic tools you must have.
9. Dumpzilla
Extract all intriguing data from the Firefox, Iceweasel, and Seamonkey browsers for Dumpzilla analysis.
10. Kali Linux
One of the most widely used operating systems for security and penetration testing is Kali Linux, which also contains forensic capabilities. You will find the right tool among the more than 100 available; I’m confident of it.
11. CAINE
A Linux distribution called CAINE (Computer Aided Investigate Environment) provides the whole forensic platform with more than 80 tools so you can investigate, evaluate, and produce a report that may be used.
12. Encrypted Disk Detector
Checking encrypted physical disks may be done with the aid of an Encrypted Disk Detector. In addition, encrypted disks using TrueCrypt, PGP, BitLocker, and Safeboot are supported.
13. Wireshark
A network capture and analyzer tool to view what’s occurring in your network is called Wireshark. Investigating the situation involving the network will be useful.
14. Magnet RAM Capture
Use Magnet RAM capture to record a computer’s physical memory and examine memory artifacts. The Windows operating system is supported.
15. NMAP
One of the most used tools for networks and security audits is NMAP (Network Mapper). Most operating systems support it, including Windows, Linux, Solaris, Mac OS, HP-UX, and others. Open source means it is free.
16. RAM Capturer
A free tool from Belkasoft called RAM Capturer may dump data from a computer’s volatile memory. Windows OS is compatible with it. Webmail and social network services login information may be found in memory dumps, along with the password for the encrypted volume.
17. NFI Defraser
The forensic tool Defraser can assist you in finding both whole and incomplete multimedia files in data streams.
18. ExifTool
With various file types, ExifTool helps you read, write, and edit metadata. EXIF, GPS, IPTC, XMP, JFIF, GeoTIFF, Photoshop IRB, FlashPix, and other file types may be read by it.
19. Toolsley
Toolsley has access to more than ten helpful tools for research.
- File signature verifier.
- File identifier.
- Hash & Validate.
- Binary inspector.
- Encode text.
- Data URI generator.
- Password generator.
20. Browser History
Foxton offers two fascinating free tools.
- Browser History Capturer for Windows OS lets you capture web browser history for Chrome, Firefox, IE, and Edge.
- The Browser History Viewer extracts and analyzes internet activity history from most contemporary browsers. The interactive graph displays the results, and past data may be filtered.
21. Paladin
The world’s most well-known Linux forensic software, PALADIN, is a customized Linux distribution based on Ubuntu that is available in 32- and 64-bit versions. Nearly all the tools you need to investigate an incident are included in its 100 tools, organized into 29 categories. The latest update, Paladin 6, includes Autospy.
22. Sleuth Kit
The Sleuth Kit is a set of command-line tools used to investigate and examine volume and file systems to find evidence.
The Bottom Line: Forensic Investigation Tools
The Forensic investigation tools mentioned above will make it easier for you to handle the Cybersecurity event and expedite the investigation.