Dark Data Hiding in your Records: Opportunity or Danger?

Dark DataHiding in your RecordsOpportunity or Danger?
Rob Zirnstein
President
Forensic Innovations
January 19th, 2011

Darth Vader?
No, “Dark Data”, but they both
Are often associated with evil
Keep secrets (“Luke, I’m your father”)
Are potentially harmful

Dark Matter?
No, “Dark Data”! But they both
Go undetected
Are surrounded by
detectable stuff
Affect things around them

What is Dark Data?
Dark Data in our digital devices
Everyone creates it (unintentionally)
Criminals may hide it (Anti-Forensics)
Forensic tools can’t see it
But it is there!
Data that we can’t see
On our hard drives
On out flash drives
In our computer files

Where is Dark Data?
DCO & HPA
Unformatted Disk Space
Deleted Files
Unknown Files
Between Files
Inside Common Files
Deleted Data Objects

Hard Drive Layout
Device Configuration
Overlay (DCO)
http://www.forensicswiki.org/wiki/SAFE_Block_XP
Data Cleaner+ http://www.mp3cdsoftware.com/blancco---data-cleaner--download-16317.htm
http://www.utica.edu/academic/institutes/ecii/publications/articles/EFE36584-D13F-2962-67BEB146864A2671.pdf
Host Protected
Area (HPA)
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Hidden_Protected_Area
Forensic Duplicator
http://www.tableau.com/pdf/en/Tableau_TD1_Product_Brief.pdf
HDD Capacity Restore Tool http://hddguru.com/software/2007.07.20-HDD-Capacity-Restore-Tool/
Unformatted Disk Space

Deleted Files
Deleted Files aren’t really gone?
Unused Disk Space (in a volume)
Disk Caches / Swap Files
Windows Recycle Bin
Are they hard to recover?
Fragmentation is deadly
Large databases tend to be
heavily fragmented
Even DFRWS Researchers find
that fragmentation can make
some file types impossible to
recover (http://www.dfrws.org/2007/challenge/results.shtml)

Unknown Files (1)
500 types of files handled by eDiscovery, Document Management & Computer Forensics Tools
50,000+* types of files in the world
5,000 types of files typically in use
*http://filext.com

Unknown Files (2)
Typical ToolsFI Tools
(23 wrong files) (26 Correct Files)

Between Files
Alternate Data Streams (ADS)
Files hiding behind files (on NTFS)
RAM Slack
Padding between the end of a file and the end of the current sector
Typically zeros, sometimes random content
File/Cluster/Residual/Drive Slack
Padding between sectors used
& the end of the current cluster
Previous sector content that
should be used in File Carving
http://www.forensics-intl.com/def6.html

Inside Common Files
Deleted Objects
Ex: Adobe PDF & MS Office 2003 (OLE)
not removing deleted data (change tracking)
Smuggled Objects
Ex: MS Office 2007 (Zip) and MS Wave
(RIFF) formats ignore foreign objects
Object / Stream Slack
Ex: OLE objects have sector size issues,
just like with disk sectors
Field Slack
Ex: Image files that don’t use the whole
palette, and/or less than 8/16/32/48 bpp
Steganography

Smuggled Objects
Some formats ignore
foreign objects
MS Office 2007 (Zip)
MS Wave (RIFF)
This example
I added a file to a
Word 2007 document.
The document opens
without any error.

Deleted Data in Slack
Deleted Data that evades Redaction

Steganography
Intentional Data Hiding

Dark Data Can Be Fragile
Deleting Files without using the Recycle Bin.
SHIFT + DEL
Defragmenting a hard drive.
Installing Applications.
Turning off “Track Changes” & “Fast Save” options.
Using Redaction Tools.
MS Word - http://redaction.codeplex.com
PDF - http://www.appligent.com/redax
PDF - http://www.rapidredact.com
Using Data Wipers.
SafeErase - http://www.oo-software.com
CyberScrub - http://www.cyberscrub.com

Dangers
You may loose a law suit if the other side finds what you missed.
Corporate Digital Assets may be walking out the door.
Intellectual Property theft
can put a company out of business.

Opportunities
Protect your company by being Aware of your Digital Assets.
Illegal content may be hidden accidentally or intentionally.
Recover lost Digital Assets by knowing where to look.
Employee misconduct is tracked by the hidden trail of improper acts.
Catch Intellectual Property theft before it walks out the door.
Identify in-house criminals by detecting their smuggling methods.

What Does FI Do?
Create Technologies to Capture Dark Data
File Investigator
File Expander
File Harvester
Equip Law Enforcement with Tools
FI TOOLS
FI Object Explorer
FI Data Profiler Portable

FI Technologies
File Investigator
Discovers Files Masquerading as Other Types
Identifies 3,953+ File Types
High Accuracy & Speed
File Expander
Discovers Hidden Data within files
Data missed by all forensic tools
File Harvester (Under Development)
Recovers deleted/lost files the
rest of the industry can’t
Will eventually rebuild partial files

Thank you
Contact
Rob Zirnstein
Rob.Zirnstein@ForensicInnovations.com
www.ForensicInnovations.com
(317) 430-6891

Dark Data Hiding in your Records: Opportunity or Danger?

by Rob Zirnstein

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