Book Image

Digital Forensics with Kali Linux - Second Edition

By : Shiva V. N. Parasram
Book Image

Digital Forensics with Kali Linux - Second Edition

By: Shiva V. N. Parasram

Overview of this book

Kali Linux is a Linux-based distribution that's widely used for penetration testing and digital forensics. It has a wide range of tools to help for digital forensics investigations and incident response mechanisms. This updated second edition of Digital Forensics with Kali Linux covers the latest version of Kali Linux and The Sleuth Kit. You'll get to grips with modern techniques for analysis, extraction, and reporting using advanced tools such as FTK Imager, hex editor, and Axiom. Updated to cover digital forensics basics and advancements in the world of modern forensics, this book will also delve into the domain of operating systems. Progressing through the chapters, you'll explore various formats for file storage, including secret hiding places unseen by the end user or even the operating system. The book will also show you how to create forensic images of data and maintain integrity using hashing tools. Finally, you'll cover advanced topics such as autopsies and acquiring investigation data from networks, operating system memory, and quantum cryptography. By the end of this book, you'll have gained hands-on experience of implementing all the pillars of digital forensics: acquisition, extraction, analysis, and presentation, all using Kali Linux tools.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
1
Section 1: Kali Linux – Not Just for Penetration Testing
4
Section 2: Forensic Fundamentals and Best Practices
7
Section 3: Forensic Tools in Kali Linux
12
Section 4: Automated Digital Forensic Suites
16
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Summary

Congratulations! You made it to the end of the first chapter. Before we jump into the second chapter, let's have a look at what was just covered.

We saw that digital forensics is still a relatively new field, although forensic science has been around for a very long time, as far back as the early 1900s. Although digital forensics may have only been on the scene since the early 2000s, as a science, we have certain best practices, procedures, and standards—such as those created by the ACPO, Budapest Convention, Interpol Guidelines, and the SWGDE—to adhere to. These maintain accuracy and the integrity of both the findings and the actual evidence when carrying out investigations, whether as an amateur or professional digital forensic investigator.

Some of the commercial tools mentioned were EnCase, FTK, and Magnet Forensics. Many of the open source tools available are made for Linux-based distributions and can be downloaded individually, but many are readily and easily available within certain forensic and security operating systems or distributions. These distributions include DEFT Linux, CAINE, and, of course, Kali Linux; all of these are freely available for download at the links provided.

I hope this introduction to digital forensics was informative and fun for you. Now that we've got a grounding in forensics, let's go deeper into Kali Linux as we learn how to download, install, and update Kali in Chapter 2, Installing Kali Linux. See you on the next page.