Eighteen Years of GPU Acceleration
November 27th, 2025 by Oleg Afonin
Eighteen years ago, before “GPU acceleration” and “AI data center” became household terms, a small hi-tech company changed the rules of cryptography. In 2007, we unveiled a radical idea – using the untapped power of graphics processors to recover passwords, which coincided with the release of video cards capable of performing fixed-point calculations. What began as an experiment would soon redefine performance computing across nearly every field.
Apple iCloud Keeps More Real-Time Data Than You Can Imagine
February 8th, 2018 by Oleg Afonin
Apple has a wonderfully integrated ecosystem. Apple computers, tablets and phones conveniently synchronize information such as passwords, Web browsing history, contacts and call logs across all of the user’s devices. This synchronization mechanism uses iCloud to sync and store information. The syncing mechanism works independently from iOS system backups that are also stored in iCloud (or iCloud Drive). As opposed to daily iCloud backups, synchronized data is updated and propagated across devices in almost real time. Extracting this information can be invaluable for investigations as it provides access to the most up to date information about the user, their activities and whereabouts.
How to Instantly Access BitLocker, TrueCrypt, PGP and FileVault 2 Volumes
January 31st, 2018 by Vladimir Katalov
It’s been a long while since we made an update to one of our most technically advanced tools, Elcomsoft Forensic Disk Decryptor (EFDD). With this tool, one could extract data from an encrypted disk volume (FileVault 2, PGP, BitLocker or TrueCrypt) by utilizing the binary encryption key contained in the computer’s RAM. We could find and extract that key by analyzing the memory dump or hibernation files.
Meet iOS 11.3: Apple to Make It Harder for Law Enforcement to Extract iPhone Data
January 25th, 2018 by Vladimir Katalov
Forget battery issues. Yes, Apple issued an apology for slowing down the iPhone and promised to add better battery management in future versions of iOS, but that’s not the point in iOS 11.3. Neither are ARKit improvements or AirPlay 2 support. There is something much more important, and it is gong to affect everyone.
iOS 11.3 Adds Expiry Date to Lockdown (Pairing) Records
January 25th, 2018 by Oleg Afonin
Lockdown files, otherwise known as pairing records, are well known to the forensic crowd for their usefulness for the purpose of logical extraction. A pairing file created on one computer (the user’s) can be used by the expert to pull information from the iOS device – that, without knowing the PIN code or pressing the user’s finger to unlock the device. Lockdown records do carry their fair share of limitations. For example, their use is severely restricted if the device has just rebooted or powered on and was not unlocked with a passcode afterwards.
Extract and Decrypt Android WhatsApp Backups from Google Account
January 24th, 2018 by Oleg Afonin
With over 1.3 billion monthly users, WhatsApp is the most popular instant messaging tool worldwide, and Android is the most popular mobile operating system by far. This makes WhatsApp acquisition from Android devices essential for the law enforcement. Elcomsoft Explorer for WhatsApp 2.30 can now download and decrypt Android user’s encrypted WhatsApp communication histories stored in Google Drive. If you have access to the user’s trusted phone number or their physical SIM card (to receive a verification code from WhatsApp), you can now use Elcomsoft Explorer for WhatsApp to download, decrypt and display WhatsApp communication histories backed up into the user’s Google Account. Surprisingly, a cloud backup may, in certain cases, contain even more information than stored on the device itself. This particularly applies to attachments (photos and videos) sent and received by WhatsApp users and then deleted from the device.
Forensic Implications of Software Updates: iOS, Android, Windows 10 Mobile
January 15th, 2018 by Oleg Afonin
Software updates remain a sore point for the 86 per cent of consumers who are using Android-based smartphones. Both Apple and Microsoft have significantly different update policies, mostly allowing the companies to deliver updates directly to their customers. There is much more to these updates than just the Android (or Windows) version. With numerous versions, subversions and carrier modified versions of the phone’s software, experts may struggle when attempting physical extraction. Let us have a look at the differences between the three mobile operating systems, their update policies and the challenges they present to the forensic examiner.
Extracting and Making Use of Chrome Passwords
January 9th, 2018 by Oleg Afonin
Thanks to its presence on Windows and Mac computers, iPhones and Android smartphones (on which it enjoys the default browser status), Google Chrome is the world’s most popular Web browser. In this article you’ll find a comprehensive guide on how to extract Google Chrome passwords from local computers and Google Account. We’ll also cover some common and some little known scenarios helping examiners put extracted passwords to good use – such as decrypting external NAS storage, unlocking BitLocker drives and attacking strong passwords. Let’s find out how to obtain Google Chrome passwords from multiple local and cloud sources such as the user’s Mac or Windows computer and their Google account.
How to Extract Media Files from iOS Devices
January 9th, 2018 by Oleg Afonin
Media files (Camera Roll, pictures and videos, books etc.) are an important part of the content of mobile devices. The ability to quickly extract media files can be essential for an investigation, especially with geotags (location data) saved in EXIF metadata. Pulling pictures and videos from an Android smartphone can be easier than obtaining the rest of the data. At the same time, media extraction from iOS devices, while not impossible, is not the easiest nor the most obvious process. Let’s have a look at tools and techniques you can use to extract media files from unlocked and locked iOS devices.
Extracting and Using iCloud Authentication Tokens
November 30th, 2017 by Oleg Afonin
In our previous blog post, we wrote everything we know about authentication tokens and Anisette data, which might allow you to bypass the “login, password and two-factor authentication” sequence. Let us have a look at how you can actually extract those tokens from a trusted computer and use them on a different computer to access a user’s iCloud account. Read Part 1 and Part 2 of the series.
