AX150 Core Mobile Acquisition & Analysis

Course modules

Module 1: Course introduction

•Learning objectives will be presented along with expected outcomes over the course’s four days.

•Hands-on exercises will allow you to install Magnet Axiom and learn about its components: Axiom Process and Axiom Examine.

•Students will discuss the state of mobile forensics and the best acquisition options available today.

Module 2: Handling considerations

•This module will explore the technology behind mobile devices including memory and cellular considerations.

•Students will discuss mobile device evidence handling to maximize available information.

•The importance of maintaining power and isolating the mobile device and how this can impact data recovered.

Module 3: iOS acquisitions

•Students will learn iOS acquisition considerations such as USB restriction mode and lockdown mode.

•iOS security will be discussed which will explain the levels in which data is made available on the device and the parameters behind it.

•Learn how to parse data from log files, included in sysdiagnoselog data that are usually only available to full filesystem images.

•Command-line interface tools will be explored and tested in the module to acquire backup type data.

Module 4: Android acquisitions

•Security policies such as Full Disk vs. File-Based Encryption will be discussed.

•Android requires drivers and Android Debug Bridge (ADB) to be enabled for an acquisition. ADB will be discussed, and useful commands will be tested via a command line interface.

•The benefits of root access will be explored, along with what it means and how it can impact an acquisition.

•This module will look at an introduction to a Magnet Axiom quick image including the live data, agent application, and Android ADB backup.

•Students will also learn how to ingest data from other tools into Axiom.

•We will also look at Magnet Forensics acquisition tools such as Magnet Acquire to obtain mobile data.

Module 5: Understanding the quick image structure

•This module looks at the Quick Image and Backup structure for both iOS and Android.

•Looking at the Backup structure in the file system explorer.

•Students will gain an understanding of the naming conventions and changes that happen during the backup process.

•Understanding the files in an iOS backup will allow students to gain an understanding of the Manifest.db and the three main configuration plists.

•This module also explores the Android quick image structure, looking at the Agent data, Live Data and SD Card Emulation.

Module 6: Core artifacts analysis

•Expanding on the data that has been acquired in previous lessons, this module focuses on the core artifact analysis of iOS and Android devices within Axiom Examine.

•This lesson will cover ownership information such as iOS device information, Android system information and Android account information.

•Core artifacts explored in this module including Call Logs, Contacts, Native messaging applications such as iMessage and Android SMS/MMS Content Provider.

•Media-specific artifacts including iOS camera roll, attachments, and Android Camera History, along with live photos and the iOS media directory will be discussed in this lesson.

•Understanding web-related artifacts is crucial and will be explored in this lesson covering Safari web history, suspended state tabs, bookmarks, recent search terms and Android Chrome.

•The final core artifact discussed in the lesson will be Installed Applications, heavily utilised by both iOS and Android, understanding where to locate this information in Axiom Examine and the file system will be demonstrated in an instructor-led exercise.

Module 7: Dynamic App Finder

•Building on information taught over the four-day period, learn how to use Axiom features such as Dynamic App Finder and custom artifacts to build data that has been manually recovered into fully functioning supported artifacts.

•Learn how to extract additional data types using Axiom’s Search for Custom Files by Type feature.

•Learn how to create XML-based artifacts to recover data from SQLite databases as well as advanced file carvers. The custom artifacts built in class will go back with the students and can be used to easily identify new unsupported data in future examinations.

•Learn how to use the Magnet Custom Artifact Generator to generate artifacts for non-traditional data like Call Detail Records and ingest the data into Axiom.

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