What’s on the Horizon? An In-Depth Forensic Analysis of Android and iOS Applications

Abstract

In the digital forensics discipline, the lack of comprehensive research that addresses investigative challenges and opportunities for newer mobile Operating Systems (OSs) such as Android 10 and Apple iOS 13, keeps continuing. These two OSs are currently being widely adopted by millions of smartphones and used by millions of users, therefore, forensic investigators need to be prepared to analyze these OSs during an investigation giving consideration to mobile app updates. The current research efforts focus on the forensic analysis of individual applications of certain OSs. In this study, we conducted a detailed forensic investigation of both Android and iOS OSs to (1) elucidate their structures for investigators, (2) identify pertinent forensic artifacts, (3) highlight any privacy and security concerns in popular applications present on both OSs, and (4) validate the forensic investigation on the selected tools for reproducibility and verification purposes. This work aims to analyze 27 Android and 33 iOS mobile applications comprehensively.INDEX TERMS Android forensics, iOS forensics, investigative techniques, mobile forensics, personally identifiable information, privacy, security.

Mobile Commerce - Analysis and Investigation of the Online Safety, Privacy, and Data Forensics of Amazon and Etsy Apps

“…Most notable, the authors recovered the user's email address, phone number, shipping address, and transaction details, including the user's credit/debit card information and shopping activity. Salamh et al (2021) conducted a forensic analysis of over 30 mobile apps on both Android 10 and iOS 13.3.1. The authors provided a detailed methodology on how they analyzed the forensic images, focusing on the privacy and security-related pitfalls of all the apps investigated.…”

MacOS bilgisayara bağlanan telefonların MAC adresi kayıtlarının incelenmesi

“…Tespit edilen MAC adres bilgilerinin çoğunlukla gerçek MAC adres bilgilerini göstermemesin yanında bazı telefonlara ait birden fazla MAC adresi kaydı olduğu görülmüştür. Ayrıca alınan bir kopyanın dosya sisteminin görüntülenmesine ve verilerin işlenerek incelenmesine olanak sağlayan [18] uluslararası adli bilişim camiasında popüler olarak kullanılan adli bilişim yazılımı, Magnet AXIOM kullanıldığında raporlama aşamasında bağlanılan bütün iOS işletim sistemine sahip cihazları tespit edemediği görülmüştür. Bu durumunda CMK m. 134 uyarınca incelenmesi yapılan delilerin [19], mahkeme sonucunu yanıltabileceği değerlendirilmiştir.…”

“…Magnet AXIOM ise "Examine" ve "Process" olmak üzere iki uygulamadan oluşur[21]. Bu yazılımlar, lisanslı olup alınan kopyanın içeriğini dosya sistemi görünümünde görüntüleyebilen ve araştırmacıların dosyaları manuel olarak işlemesine olanak tanıyan aynı zamanda otomatik veri işleme ve analiz yeteneğine sahiptirler[18].  Verilerin Toplanması; Çalışma ortamının hazırlanması aşamasında temin edilen telefonların, ayarlarlar menüsündeki "Hakkında" kısmından telefon adı, marka, model bilgisi ve MAC adresleri not alınmıştır.…”

How privacy concerns impact Swedish citizens’ willingness to report crimes: a quantitative mobile phone survey

“…Victims of crime can facilitate investigations and increase the probability of prosecution through cooperation by handing in their mobile phones to the police’s forensic unit. With a mobile phone digital forensics (DF) can be carried out, which is a well-used process to collect pieces of evidence from digital devices in IT-related crime investigations (Garfinkel, 2010; Salamh et al , 2021; Kävrestad, 2020). A mobile phone, arguably the most personal device, can store evidence such as photos, chats, text messages and calls, making it a terrific device for criminal investigations (Salamh et al , 2021).…”

“…With a mobile phone digital forensics (DF) can be carried out, which is a well-used process to collect pieces of evidence from digital devices in IT-related crime investigations (Garfinkel, 2010; Salamh et al , 2021; Kävrestad, 2020). A mobile phone, arguably the most personal device, can store evidence such as photos, chats, text messages and calls, making it a terrific device for criminal investigations (Salamh et al , 2021). The benefits of cooperation are primarily due to anti-forensics tools such as encryption which creates technical challenges that can be simple to address whether passwords are given (Javed et al , 2021).…”