In today’s digital age, extracting data from mobile devices is an essential aspect of forensic investigations. However, it must be done carefully and correctly to ensure the highest possible level of accuracy and reliability. To accomplish this, the appropriate extraction methods should be used in the right order, considering all available options for a given device running a specific version of the operating system. So what is the best order of extraction methods when acquiring an iPhone? Read along to find out.

Access to encrypted information can be gained through various methods, including live system analysis (1 and 2), using bootable forensic tools, analysis of sleep/hibernation files, and exploiting TPM vulnerabilities, with password recovery being the last option on the list. Each method has different resource requirements and should be used in order of least resource-intensive to most time-consuming, with password recovery as the last resort. Familiarize yourself with the different encryption recovery strategies and learn about data formats with weak protection or known vulnerabilities.

Discover the benefits of agent-based data extraction from iOS devices. Learn about the purpose and development of the extraction agent, when it can be used, and best practices. Get a comprehensive understanding of the cutting-edge approach for iOS data extraction.

On January 23, 2023, Apple have released a bunch of system updates that target the different device architectures. iOS 16.3 is available for many recent devices, while older models were updated to iOS 12.5.7, iOS 15.7.3 and iPadOS 15.7.3 respectively. While Elcomsoft iOS Forensic Toolkit supported these versions of the system from the get go, today we are rolling out an update that irons out minor inconveniences when imaging such devices.

What does “forensically sound extraction” mean? The classic definition of forensically sound extraction means both repeatable and verifiable results. However, there is more to it. We believe that forensically sound extractions should not only be verifiable and repeatable, but verifiable in a safe, error-proof manner, so we tweaked our product to deliver just that.