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Learning Android Forensics

4.2 (6)

Learning Android Forensics

4.2 (6)

Overview of this book

If you are a forensic analyst or an information security professional wanting to develop your knowledge of Android forensics, then this is the book for you. Some basic knowledge of the Android mobile platform is expected.

Preface

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Free Chapter

1. Introducing Android Forensics

1. Introducing Android Forensics

Mobile forensics

The mobile forensics approach

Challenges in mobile forensics

The Android architecture

Android security

2. Setting Up an Android Forensic Environment

2. Setting Up an Android Forensic Environment

The Android forensic setup

The Android SDK

Connecting and accessing an Android device from the workstation

Android Debug Bridge

Rooting Android

ADB on a rooted device

Summary

3. Understanding Data Storage on Android Devices

3. Understanding Data Storage on Android Devices

Android partition layout

Android file hierarchy

Application data storage on the device

Android filesystem overview

Summary

4. Extracting Data Logically from Android Devices

4. Extracting Data Logically from Android Devices

Logical extraction overview

Manual ADB data extraction

ADB backup extractions

ADB Dumpsys

Bypassing Android lock screens

Cracking an Android pattern lock

Android SIM card extractions

Issues and opportunities with Android Lollipop

Summary

5. Extracting Data Physically from Android Devices

5. Extracting Data Physically from Android Devices

Physical extraction overview

Extracting data physically with dd

Extracting data physically with nanddump

Analyzing a full physical image

Imaging and analyzing Android RAM

Acquiring Android SD cards

Advanced forensic methods

Summary

6. Recovering Deleted Data from an Android Device

6. Recovering Deleted Data from an Android Device

An overview of data recovery

Recovering data deleted from an SD card

Recovering data deleted from internal memory

Analyzing backups

Summary

7. Forensic Analysis of Android Applications

7. Forensic Analysis of Android Applications

Application analysis

Determining what apps are installed

Wi-Fi analysis

Contacts/call analysis

SMS/MMS analysis

User dictionary analysis

Gmail analysis

Google Chrome analysis

Google Maps analysis

Google Hangouts analysis

Google Keep analysis

Google Plus analysis

Facebook analysis

Facebook Messenger analysis

Skype analysis

Snapchat analysis

Viber analysis

Tango analysis

WhatsApp analysis

Kik analysis

WeChat analysis

Application reverse engineering

Summary

8. Android Forensic Tools Overview

8. Android Forensic Tools Overview

ViaExtract

Autopsy

ViaLab Community Edition

Summary

Conclusion

Index

Index

Customer Reviews

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ADB on a rooted device

We have already seen how the ADB tool can be used to interact with the device and execute certain commands on the device. However, on a normal Android phone, certain locations, such as /data/data, cannot be accessed. For example, the following the command-line output appears when you try to access /data/data on a normal device:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools>adb.exe shell
shell@android:/ $ cd /data/data
cd /data/data
shell@android:/data/data $ ls
ls
opendir failed, Permission denied

This is because the private data of all the applications is stored in this folder. Thus, the security is enforced by Android. Only the root user has access to this location. Hence, on a rooted device, you will be able to see all the data under this location, as shown in the following commands:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools>adb.exe shell
shell@android:/ # ls /data/data
ls /data/data
android.googleSearch.googleSearchWidget
com.android...

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