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This is the Forensics Wiki, a Creative Commons-licensed wiki devoted to information about digital forensics (also known as computer forensics). We currently list a total of 475 pages.

Much of computer forensics is focused on the tools and techniques used by investigators, but there are also a number of important papers, people, and organizations involved. Many of those organizations sponsor conferences throughout the year and around the world. You may also wish to examine the popular journals and some special reports.

Selected Forensics Research

2008-Aug-13

Lest We Remember: Cold Boot Attacks on Encryption Keys: J. Alex Halderman, Princeton University; Seth D. Schoen, Electronic Frontier Foundation; Nadia Heninger and William Clarkson, Princeton University; William Paul, Wind River Systems; Joseph A. Calandrino and Ariel J. Feldman, Princeton University; Jacob Appelbaum; Edward W. Felten, Princeton University; USENIX Security '08 Refereed Paper; Awarded Best Student Paper

Increasingly memory analysis is of interest in forensic research---both because new malware only resides in memory, and because memory analysis is frequently the only way for analysts to get the keys that are used to protect cryptographic file systems. In this paper the authors show that cryptographic keys in memory are vulnerable to exploitation after the computer is turned off. The authors show that the contents of dynamic RAM are retained seconds, and sometimes minutes, after power is turned off. By chilling the memory the data can be retained as long as necessary. And while most laptops wipe their memory when they reboot, the authors show that the chilled memory can be moved from one laptop that wipes to another laptop that does not wipe. Finally, the authors show that it is possible to find the cryptographic keys in memory and correct random bit errors by using the AES key schedule as an error-correction code. The authors demonstrate an attack USB stick which reboots a computer protected with BitLocker, finds the cryptographic keys, and then allows access to the cleartext information on the disk.

(Past selected articles are archived here.)