Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2015

Subject: LCSH

Cyber forensics, Computer forensics, Smartphones

Disciplines

Computer Engineering | Computer Sciences | Electrical and Computer Engineering | Forensic Science and Technology | Information Security

Abstract

In this research we forensically acquire and analyze the device-stored data and network traffic of 20 popular instant messaging applications for Android. We were able to reconstruct some or the entire message content from 16 of the 20 applications tested, which reflects poorly on the security and privacy measures employed by these applications but may be construed positively for evidence collection purposes by digital forensic practitioners. This work shows which features of these instant messaging applications leave evidentiary traces allowing for suspect data to be reconstructed or partially reconstructed, and whether network forensics or device forensics permits the reconstruction of that activity. We show that in most cases we were able to reconstruct or intercept data such as: passwords, screenshots taken by applications, pictures, videos, audio sent, messages sent, sketches, profile pictures and more.

Comments

The material published in the DFRWS Conference Proceedings is made available through a license under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Dr. Baggili was appointed to the University of New Haven's Elder Family Endowed Chair in 2015.

DOI

10.1016/j.diin.2015.05.009

Publisher Citation

Walnycky, D., Baggili, I., Marrington, A., Moore, J., & Breitinger, F. (2015). Network and device forensic analysis of Android social-messaging applications. The Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual DFRWS Conference. Digital Investigation 14, Supplement 1, S77–S84.

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