Publication Details
Netfox Detective: A tool for advanced network forensics analysis
Matoušek Petr, doc. Ing., Ph.D., M.A. (DIFS FIT BUT)
Ryšavý Ondřej, doc. Ing., Ph.D. (DIFS FIT BUT)
Kmeť Martin, Ing. (DIFS FIT BUT)
Veselý Vladimír, Ing., Ph.D. (DIFS FIT BUT)
Karpíšek Filip, Ing. (DIFS FIT BUT)
Vymlátil Martin, Ing. (FIT BUT)
network forensics, forensic tools, network traffic analysis, Web mail, SIP, RTP
Network forensics is a process of capturing, collecting and analysing network data for the purposes of information gathering, legal evidence, or intrusion detection. The new generation internet opens novel opportunities for cybercrime activities and security incidents using network applications. Security administrators and LEA (Law Enforcement Agency) officers are challenged to employ advanced tools and techniques in order to detect unlawful or unauthorized activities. In case of serious suspicion of crime activity, network forensics tools and techniques are used to find out legal evidences in a captured network communication that prove or disprove suspect’s participation on that activity.
Today, there are various commercial or free tools for network forensics analysis available, e.g., Wireshark, Network Miner, NetWitness, Xplico, NetIntercept, or PacketScan. Many of these tools lack the ability of successful reconstruction of communication when using incomplete, duplicated or corrupted input data. Investigators also require an advanced automatic processing of application data that helps them to see real contents of conversation that include chats, VoIP talks, file transmission, email exchange etc.
Our research is focused on design and implementation of a modular framework for network forensics with advanced possibilities of application reconstruction. The proposed architecture consists of (i) input packet processing, (ii) an advanced reconstruction of L7 conversations, and (iii) application-based analysis and presentation of L7 conversations. Our approach employs various advanced reconstruction techniques and heuristics that enable to work even with corrupted or incomplete data, e.g. one-directional flows, missing synchronization, unbounded conversations, etc.
The proposed framework was implemented in a tool Netfox Detective developed by our research group. This paper shows its architecture from functional and logical point of view and its application on reconstruction of web mail traffic, VoIP and RTP transmissions.
@INPROCEEDINGS{FITPUB10863,
author = "Jan Pluskal and Petr Matou\v{s}ek and Ond\v{r}ej Ry\v{s}av\'{y} and Martin Kme\v{t} and Vladim\'{i}r Vesel\'{y} and Filip Karp\'{i}\v{s}ek and Martin Vyml\'{a}til",
title = "Netfox Detective: A tool for advanced network forensics analysis",
pages = "147--163",
booktitle = "Proceedings of Security and Protection of Information (SPI) 2015",
year = 2015,
location = "Brno, CZ",
publisher = "University of Defence in Brno",
ISBN = "978-80-7231-997-8",
language = "english",
url = "https://www.fit.vut.cz/research/publication/10863"
}