Book Image

Learning Python for Forensics - Second Edition

By : Preston Miller, Chapin Bryce
Book Image

Learning Python for Forensics - Second Edition

By: Preston Miller, Chapin Bryce

Overview of this book

Digital forensics plays an integral role in solving complex cybercrimes and helping organizations make sense of cybersecurity incidents. This second edition of Learning Python for Forensics illustrates how Python can be used to support these digital investigations and permits the examiner to automate the parsing of forensic artifacts to spend more time examining actionable data. The second edition of Learning Python for Forensics will illustrate how to develop Python scripts using an iterative design. Further, it demonstrates how to leverage the various built-in and community-sourced forensics scripts and libraries available for Python today. This book will help strengthen your analysis skills and efficiency as you creatively solve real-world problems through instruction-based tutorials. By the end of this book, you will build a collection of Python scripts capable of investigating an array of forensic artifacts and master the skills of extracting metadata and parsing complex data structures into actionable reports. Most importantly, you will have developed a foundation upon which to build as you continue to learn Python and enhance your efficacy as an investigator.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)

Parsing ID3 metdata – id3_parser.py

id3_parser is similar to exif_parser we've previously discussed. The id3_parser() function defined on line 37 checks the file signature and then calls the get_tags() function. The get_tags() function relies on the mutagen module to parse MP3 and ID3 tags:

001 import os
002 from time import gmtime, strftime
003
004 from mutagen import mp3, id3
005
006 import processors .. 037 def id3_parser(): ... 059 def get_tags():

Understanding the id3_parser() function

This function is identical to the exif_parser() function, with the exception of the signature that's used to check file headers. The MP3 format has only one file signature, 0x494433, unlike the JPEG format. When we call...