Forensic analysis of android phone using Ext4 file system journal log

Dohyun Kim, Jungheum Park, Keun Gi Lee, Sangjin Lee

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

    23 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    As announcing Android OS 2.3, Gingerbread, Google changed the existing file system, yaffs2 to ext2 and adopted it as official file system in android phone. Ext4, the most widely used file system in Linux, not only assists large, but also provides fault tolerance through journaling function by adopting JFSjournal file system. In journal log created through journaling function of ext4, every transaction occurred in file system is record. All transactions include all events (e.g., creating, deleting, and modifying). Therefore, analyzing journal log, we would know what file did android user access to; could recover deleted files as finding the information of previous status of them. Moreover, we could also analyze user actions if we make up timeline by utilizing timestamp recorded in journal log. Based on these facts, in this paper, we aim to analyze journal log area in ext4 file system; to develop the tool, JDForensic, that extracts journal log data to recover deleted data and analyze user actions. This tool will be usefully utilized in the first time digital forensic investigation of android phone.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationFuture Information Technology, Application, and Service, FutureTech 2012
    Pages435-446
    Number of pages12
    EditionVOL. 1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2012
    Event7th FTRA International Conference on Future Information Technology, FutureTech 2012 - Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Duration: 2012 Jun 262012 Jun 28

    Publication series

    NameLecture Notes in Electrical Engineering
    NumberVOL. 1
    Volume164 LNEE
    ISSN (Print)1876-1100
    ISSN (Electronic)1876-1119

    Other

    Other7th FTRA International Conference on Future Information Technology, FutureTech 2012
    Country/TerritoryCanada
    CityVancouver, BC
    Period12/6/2612/6/28

    Keywords

    • Analysis of user actions
    • Android phone
    • Data recovery
    • Digital forensics
    • Ext4 file system
    • Journal log

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

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