AFF - Revision history

Simsong at 12:04, 8 April 2013

2013-04-08T12:04:57Z

Simsong at 11:42, 8 April 2013

2013-04-08T11:42:54Z

Hydrocloricacid: Adding info re xmount& FTK (& imager) support for this format

2012-04-04T23:42:54Z

Adding info re xmount& FTK (& imager) support for this format

Mukky: Added OSFMount that allows AFF images to be mounted with a drive letter.

2011-10-21T05:24:09Z

Added OSFMount that allows AFF images to be mounted with a drive letter.

Simsong at 17:07, 3 October 2009

2009-10-03T17:07:03Z

Simsong: /* External Links */

2009-04-21T01:12:14Z

‎External Links

Simsong: /* External Links */

2007-10-10T23:23:33Z

‎External Links

Jessek: /* See Also */

2007-07-26T13:06:06Z

‎See Also

Simsong at 18:34, 18 July 2007

2007-07-18T18:34:40Z

Simsong: /* Compression and Encryption */

2007-07-18T13:26:57Z

‎Compression and Encryption

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 [[Sleuthkit]], [[Autopsy]] , [[OSFMount]], [[Xmount]], [[FTK Imager]] and [[FTK]] support the AFFv3 image format.
-=AFF Background=
+==AFF Background==
-AFF is an open and extensible file format to store disk images and associated metadata. Using AFF, the user is not locked into a proprietary format that may limit how he or she may analyze it. An open standard enables investigators to quickly and efficiently use their preferred tools to solve crimes, gather intelligence, and resolve security incidents.
+AFF was created to be an open and extensible file format to store disk images and associated metadata. The goal was to create a disk imaging format that would not lock users into a proprietary format that may limit how he or she may analyze it. An open standard enables investigators to quickly and efficiently use their preferred tools to solve crimes, gather intelligence, and resolve security incidents. The format was implemented in AFFLIB which was distributed with an open source license.
-Use of proprietary file formats means converting from one format to another to use multiple tools. Converting between formats risks data corruption if the formats are not well understood. Metadata may be lost if all formats do not support the same forms of metadata.
+After AFFLIB was published, [[Joachim Metz]] published [[libewf]], an open source implementation of the EnCase Expert Witness format. Later, Guidance Software modified its format to allow single disk volumes larger than 4GiB. Together these two changes significantly decreased the need for AFF and AFFLIB.
-==Extensible Design==
-Use AFF to store any type of metadata such as GPS coordinates, chain of custody information, or any other user-defined data.
+In 2009 Cohen, Garfinkel and Schatz published an article on AFF4, a new file format that incorporated and expanded on the underlying AFF ideas. AFF4 provides for multiple data views within a single data archives and allows links between archives. As a result, AFF4 natively supports selective imaging, logical file volumes, hash-based imaging, and a variety of case-management scenarios.
-AFF supports the definition of arbitrary metadata by storing all data as name and value pairs, called segments. Some segments store the disk data and others store metadata. Because of this general design, any metadata can be defined by simply creating a new name and value pair. Each of the segments can be compressed to reduce the size of drive images, and cryptographic hashes can be calculated for each segment to ensure data integrity.
+==AFFv3 Extensions==
-−
-==Flexible Design==
-−
-For flexibility, there are three variations of AFF files – AFF, AFD and AFM – and freely available tools to easily convert between the variations.
 The original AFF format is a single file that contains segments with drive data and metadata. Its contents can be compressed, but it can be quite large as the data on modern hard disks often reach 100GB in size.
-For ease of transfer, large AFF files can be broken into multiple AFD format files. The smaller AFD files can be readily moved around a FAT32 file system which limits files to 2GB or stored on DVDs, which have similar size restrictions.
+For ease of transfer, large AFF files can be broken into multiple AFD format files. The smaller AFD files can be readily moved around a FAT32 file system which limits files to 2GB or stored on DVDs, which have similar size restrictions. The AFM format stores the metadata in an AFF file, and the disk data in a separate raw file. This format allows analysis tools that support the raw format to access the data, but without losing the metadata.
-−
 The AFM format stores the metadata in an AFF file, and the disk data in a separate raw file. This format allows analysis tools that support the raw format to access the data, but without losing the metadata.
-==Compression and Encryption==
+===Compression and Encryption===
 AFF supports two compression algorithms: zlib, which is fast and reasonably efficient, and LZMA, which is slower but dramatically more efficient. zlib is the same compression algorithm used by EnCase. As a result, AFF files compressed with zlib are roughly the same size as the equivalent EnCase file. AFF files can be recompressed using the LZMA algorithm. These files are anywhere from 1/2 to 1/10th the size of the original AFF/EnCase file.
 AFF2.0 supports encryption of disk images. Unlike the password implemented by EnCase, encrypted images cannot be accessed without the necessary encryption key. FTK Imager/FTK added support for this encryption  in version 3.0 and are able to create and access AFF encrypted images.
-= AFF Tools =
+=== AFFLIBv3 Tools ===
 * [[aimage]]
@@ Line 48: / Line 42: @@
 == External Links ==
 * [http://www.basistech.com/digital-forensics/aff.html Basis Technology's AFF website]
 * [http://www.osforensics.com/tools/mount-disk-images.html OSFMount - 3rd party tool for mounting AFF disk images with a drive letter]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-The '''Advanced Forensics Format''' ('''AFF''') is an extensible open format for the storage of [[disk image]]s and related forensic [[metadata]]. It was developed by [[Simson Garfinkel]] and [[Basis Technology]].
+The '''Advanced Forensics Format''' ('''AFF''') is an extensible open format for the storage of [[disk image]]s and related forensic [[metadata]]. It was originally developed by [[Simson Garfinkel]] and [[Basis Technology]]. The last version of AFF is implemented in the [[AFFLIBv3]] library, which can be found on [https://github.com/simsong/AFFLIBv3 github].  [[AFF4]] builds upon many of the concepts developed in AFF.  AFF4 was developed by [[Michael Cohen]], Simson Garfinkel and Bradley Schatz. That version can be downloaded from [https://code.google.com/p/aff4/ Google Code].
-[[Sleuthkit]], [[Autopsy]] , [[OSFMount]], [[Xmount]], [[FTK Imager]] and [[FTK]] support the AFF image format.
+[[Sleuthkit]], [[Autopsy]] , [[OSFMount]], [[Xmount]], [[FTK Imager]] and [[FTK]] support the AFFv3 image format.
 =AFF Background=

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 The '''Advanced Forensics Format''' ('''AFF''') is an extensible open format for the storage of [[disk image]]s and related forensic [[metadata]]. It was developed by [[Simson Garfinkel]] and [[Basis Technology]].
-Both [[Sleuthkit]], [[Autopsy]] and [[OSFMount]] support the aff image format.
+[[Sleuthkit]], [[Autopsy]] , [[OSFMount]], [[Xmount]], [[FTK Imager]] and [[FTK]] support the AFF image format.
 =AFF Background=
@@ Line 26: / Line 26: @@
 AFF supports two compression algorithms: zlib, which is fast and reasonably efficient, and LZMA, which is slower but dramatically more efficient. zlib is the same compression algorithm used by EnCase. As a result, AFF files compressed with zlib are roughly the same size as the equivalent EnCase file. AFF files can be recompressed using the LZMA algorithm. These files are anywhere from 1/2 to 1/10th the size of the original AFF/EnCase file.
-AFF2.0 supports encryption of disk images. Unlike the password implemented by EnCase, encrypted images cannot be accessed without the necessary encryption key.
+AFF2.0 supports encryption of disk images. Unlike the password implemented by EnCase, encrypted images cannot be accessed without the necessary encryption key. FTK Imager/FTK added support for this encryption  in version 3.0 and are able to create and access AFF encrypted images.
 = AFF Tools =

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 The '''Advanced Forensics Format''' ('''AFF''') is an extensible open format for the storage of [[disk image]]s and related forensic [[metadata]]. It was developed by [[Simson Garfinkel]] and [[Basis Technology]].
-Both [[Sleuthkit]] and [[Autopsy]]  support the aff image format.
+Both [[Sleuthkit]], [[Autopsy]] and [[OSFMount]] support the aff image format.
 =AFF Background=
@@ Line 51: / Line 51: @@
 * [http://www.afflib.org/ Official website]
 * [http://www.basistech.com/digital-forensics/aff.html Basis Technology's AFF website]
 [[Category:Forensics File Formats]]
 [[Category:Open Source Tools]]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 The '''Advanced Forensics Format''' ('''AFF''') is an extensible open format for the storage of [[disk image]]s and related forensic [[metadata]]. It was developed by [[Simson Garfinkel]] and [[Basis Technology]].
-Both [[Sleuthkit]] 2.04 and [[Autopsy]] 2.07 support the aff image format.
+Both [[Sleuthkit]] and [[Autopsy]]  support the aff image format.
 =AFF Background=
-Until recently, if a digital investigator wished to use multiple tools to hasten the time-intensive labor of analyzing data from a PC hard drive, the raw format – an exact byte-for-byte copy of data – was the only format available. But being uncompressed, raw data is unwieldy and also unable to store critical metadata about the data’s source.
+AFF is an open and extensible file format to store disk images and associated metadata. Using AFF, the user is not locked into a proprietary format that may limit how he or she may analyze it. An open standard enables investigators to quickly and efficiently use their preferred tools to solve crimes, gather intelligence, and resolve security incidents.
 Use of proprietary file formats means converting from one format to another to use multiple tools. Converting between formats risks data corruption if the formats are not well understood. Metadata may be lost if all formats do not support the same forms of metadata.
 ==Extensible Design==

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:23, 10 October 2007
Line 56:		Line 56:

	[[Category:Forensics File Format]]		[[Category:Forensics File Format]]
		+	[[Category:Open Source Tools]]

@@ Line 47: / Line 47: @@
 = See Also =
-[[AFF Development Task List]] --- Want to help with AFF? Here is a list of things that need to be done.
+* [[AFF Developers Guide]] --- A guide for programmers on how to use the AFF
 == External Links ==