Examining the art of computer forensics
To Catch a Thief
You don't need expensive proprietary tools to practice the craft of computer forensics.
Crime scene: the server room…The thief doesn't need a key card or the protection of darkness – an intruder can use the Internet to come and go. But despite the secret entrance, the attacker still leaves behind some telltale traces. Finding and interpreting this evidence is the top priority of criminal investigators.
This month's cover story explores the world of computer forensics. We'll show you some tools the experts use to find clues, recover deleted files, and root out hidden evidence. We start with a study of the open source Sleuth Kit forensics toolkit. We also look at Foremost and Scalpel – a pair of tools for finding and restoring deleted files. We show you how to examine Windows disks with Linux tools, and we end with a look at the Open Computer Forensics Architecture, a freely available collection of forensics tools and libraries developed for the Dutch police.
But if you're not really going to trial and you just want to catch the intruder on your system, you might not want to go to all the trouble of launching a full forensics investigation. The following sections describe some tips for finding intruders on the system using standard Linux utilities.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.
-
IBM Announces Powerhouse Linux Server
IBM has unleashed a seriously powerful Linux server with the LinuxONE Emperor 5.
-
Plasma Ends LTS Releases
The KDE Plasma development team is doing away with the LTS releases for a good reason.
-
Arch Linux Available for Windows Subsystem for Linux
If you've ever wanted to use a rolling release distribution with WSL, now's your chance.
-
System76 Releases COSMIC Alpha 7
With scores of bug fixes and a really cool workspaces feature, COSMIC is looking to soon migrate from alpha to beta.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 6.0 Available for Installation
The latest release of OpenMandriva has arrived with a new kernel, an updated Plasma desktop, and a server edition.
-
TrueNAS 25.04 Arrives with Thousands of Changes
One of the most popular Linux-based NAS solutions has rolled out the latest edition, based on Ubuntu 25.04.
-
Fedora 42 Available with Two New Spins
The latest release from the Fedora Project includes the usual updates, a new kernel, an official KDE Plasma spin, and a new System76 spin.
-
So Long, ArcoLinux
The ArcoLinux distribution is the latest Linux distribution to shut down.