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slack space, or even after installation of a new operating system, as long as the required data blocks still exist.
Forensics application to recover data.Foremost is a console program to recover files based on their headers, footers, and internal data structures. This process is commonly referred to as data carving. Foremost can work on image files, such as those generated by dd, Safeback, Encase, etc, or directly on a drive. The headers and footers can be specified by a configuration file or you can use command line switches to specify built-in file types. These built-in types look at the data structures of a given file format allowing for a more reliable and faster recovery.
Install foremost in Ubuntu
sudo aptitude install foremost
This will complete the installation.
Using Foremost
Foremost Syntax
foremost [-h][-V][-d][-vqwQT][-b<blocksize>][-o<dir>] [-t<type>][-s<num>][-i<file>]
Available Options
-h Show a help screen and exit.
-V Show copyright information and exit.
-d Turn on indirect block detection, this works well for Unix file systems.
-T Time stamp the output directory so you don’t have to delete the output dir when running multiple times.
-v Enables verbose mode. This causes more information regarding the current state of the program to be dis-played on the screen, and is highly recommended.
-q Enables quick mode. In quick mode, only the start of each sector is searched for matching headers. That is,the header is searched only up to the length of the longest header. The rest of the sector, usually about 500 bytes, is ignored. This mode makes foremost run con- siderably faster, but it may cause you to miss files that are embedded in other files. For example, using quick mode you will not be able to find JPEG images embedded in Microsoft Word documents.
Quick mode should not be used when examining NTFS file systems. Because NTFS will store small files inside the Master File Table, these files will be missed during quick mode.
-Q Enables Quiet mode. Most error messages will be sup-pressed.
-w Enables write audit only mode. No files will be extracted.
-a Enables write all headers, perform no error detection in terms of corrupted files.
-b number Allows you to specify the block size used in foremost. This is relevant for file naming and quick searches. The default is 512. ie. foremost -b 1024 image.dd
-k number Allows you to specify the chunk size used in foremost.This can improve speed if you have enough RAM to fit the image in. It reduces the checking that occurs between chunks of the buffer. For example if you had > 500MB of RAM. ie. foremost -k 500 image.dd
-i file The file is used as the input file. If no input file is specified or the input file cannot be read then stdin is used.
-o directory Recovered files are written to the directory directory.
-c file Sets the configuration file to use. If none is speci-fied, the file “foremost.conf” from the current direc-tory is used, if that doesn’t exist then “/etc/fore-most.conf” is used. The format for the configuration file is described in the default configuration file included with this program. See the CONFIGURATION FILE section below for more information.
-s number Skips number blocks in the input file before beginning the search for headers. ie. foremost -s 512 -t jpeg -i /dev/hda1
Foremost examples
Search for jpeg format skipping the first 100 blocks
sudo foremost -s 100 -t jpg -i image.dd
Only generate an audit file, and print to the screen (verbose mode)
sudo foremost -av image.dd
Search all defined types
sudo foremost -t all -i image.dd
Search for gif and pdf
sudo foremost -t gif,pdf -i image.dd
Search for office documents and jpeg files in a Unix file sys-tem in verbose mode.
sudo foremost -v -t ole,jpeg -i image.dd
Run the default case
sudo foremost image.dd
image.dd means you need to enter your hardisk mount point i.e /dev/sda1 or /dev/sda2
scalpel
A Frugal, High Performance File CarverA fast file carver that reads a database of header and footer definitions and extracts matching files from a set of image files or raw device files. Scalpel is filesystem-independent and will carve files from FATx, NTFS, ext2/3, or raw partitions. It is useful for both digital forensics investigation and file recovery.
Install scalpel in Ubuntu
sudo aptitude install scalpel
This will complete the installation
Using scalpel
By default, all file types in the database (/etc/scalpel/scalpel.conf) are commented out. To specify which filetypes you want to carve, you need to edit the file and uncomment each line.
sudo scalpel FILE -o Directory
Where FILE is the image file (or device) and Directory is the output directory.
Given the various possible “places” a recoverable image might be found — would you please followup this up with a post on how to ensure that “designated” files can not be recovered by the cited programs or any other means?
They are able to recover data as long as the required data blocks still exist.
Thus, a complete format should do the trick (against these particular tools anyway).
A format will not erase a drive. It will just lay out certain blocks with filesystem information leaving the rest behind.
You can write random data over the drive through a variety of methods, but with fancy equipment any modestly sized government can see what was there before.
There are two real solutions, one is to overwrite the data over and over using different patterns, and the other is to shred the drive and melt the pieces.
I use the first choice with a program called “wipe”(apt-get install wipe).
One important thing to know is that many file systems such as journaled ones will make copies of information and store them elsewhere, wipe cannot securely erase files on these file systems.
However, when wipe is used on a block device such as /dev/sda1(just a partition) or /dev/sda(the whole disk) it is very effective at destroying information.
Please point out where this is an Ubuntu-specific program?
Thought you couldn’t.
it;s a very very or best os i like it