What TRIM, DRAT, and DZAT Really Mean for SSD Forensics
June 2nd, 2025 by Oleg Afonin
If you’re doing forensic work today, odds are you’re imaging SSDs, not just spinning hard drives. And SSDs don’t behave like HDDs – especially when it comes to deleted files. One key reason: the TRIM command. TRIM makes SSDs behave different to magnetic hard drives when it comes to recovering deleted evidence. This article breaks down what TRIM actually does, how SSDs respond, and what forensic experts need to know when handling modern storage.
Apple Watch Forensics: The Adapters
August 18th, 2021 by Vladimir Katalov
How do you extract an Apple Watch? While several extraction methods are available, you need an adapter if you want to get the data directly from the device. There are several different options available on the market, some of them costing north of $200. We tested a large number of such adapters. How do they stand to the marketing claims? In this article, I will share my experience with these adapters.
iOS Privacy Protection Tools: Encrypted DNS, iOS 15 Private Relay, Proxy, VPN and TOR
July 28th, 2021 by Oleg Afonin
Protecting one’s online privacy is becoming increasingly more important. With ISPs selling their customers’ usage data left and right, and various apps, mail and Web trackers contributing to the pool of “anonymized” data, de-anonimyzation becomes possible with big data analysis. This was clearly demonstrated with the recent event highlighted in Catholic priest quits after “anonymized” data revealed alleged use of Grindr.
Updated Elcomsoft iOS Forensic Toolkit Simplifies macOS Installs, Fixes Corrupted File System Extraction
July 15th, 2021 by Vladimir Katalov
While we are still working on the new version of Elcomsoft iOS Forensic Toolkit featuring forensically sound and nearly 100% compatible checkm8 extraction, an intermediate update is available with two minor yet important improvements. The update makes it easier to install the tool on macOS computers, and introduces a new agent extraction option.
How to Remove Restrictions from Adobe PDF Files
July 1st, 2021 by Vladimir Katalov
Have you got an Adobe PDF file that you can open but cannot edit, print or copy selected text to the clipboard? There is an easy solution: with just a couple of clicks, the file can be unprotected. Bad news: you’ll need software. Good news: we’ve built one for you.
Elcomsoft System Recovery Simplifies Digital Field Triage and In-Field Investigations
June 17th, 2021 by Oleg Afonin
Elcomsoft System Recovery is a perfect tool for digital field triage, enabling safer and more secure in-field investigations of live computers by booting from a dedicated USB media instead of using the installed OS. The recent update added a host of features to the already great tool, making it easier to examine the file system and extract passwords from the target computer.
Analyzing Microsoft Timeline, OneDrive and Personal Vault Files
June 15th, 2021 by Oleg Afonin
Elcomsoft Phone Breaker is not just about Apple iCloud data. It can also download the data from other cloud services including Microsoft accounts. In this new version, we have added support for even more types of data, including Windows 10 Timeline, Account Activity (logins to the account), OneDrive files, recent OneDrive files history, and files from Microsoft Personal Vault. Learn about these data types and how they can help advance your investigation.
Breaking VeraCrypt: Obtaining and Extracting On-The-Fly Encryption Keys
June 3rd, 2021 by Oleg Afonin
Released back in 2013, VeraCrypt picks up where TrueCrypt left off. Supporting more encryption algorithms, more hash functions and a variable number of hash iterations, VeraCrypt is the default choice for the security conscious. VeraCrypt has no known weaknesses except one: once the encrypted disk is mounted, the symmetric, on-the-fly encryption key must be kept in the computer’s RAM in order to read and write encrypted data. A recent change in VeraCrypt made OTF key extraction harder, while the latest update to Elcomsoft Forensic Disk Decryptor attempts to counter the effect of the change. Who is going to win this round?
Password Crackers’ Gold Mine: Browser Passwords
June 1st, 2021 by Vladimir Katalov
How to break ‘strong’ passwords? Is there a methodology, a step by step approach? What shall you start from if your time is limited but you desperately need to decrypt critical evidence? We want to share some tips with you, this time about the passwords saved in the Web browsers on most popular platforms.
Hey Dude, Where Is My iCloud Data?
May 27th, 2021 by Vladimir Katalov
For more than ten years, we’ve been exploring iPhone backups, both local and iCloud, and we know a lot about them. Let’s reveal some secrets about the different types of backups and how they compare to each other.
The Inception of Elcomsoft Phone Breaker
May 26th, 2021 by Vladimir Katalov
It’s been 10 years since we have released one of our flagship products, Elcomsoft Phone Breaker. The first version appeared in April 2011, and was named “iPhone Password Breaker”. Since then, we made tons of improvements. The tool lost the “iPhone” designation, and the “Password” part was dropped from its name because it was no longer limited to iPhones or passwords. Today, the tool can offer unmatched features for the mobile forensic specialists.
