Frostwire 5 Forensics 5192z

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Forensic Examination of FrostWire version 5 POSTED BY VERONICASCHM ⋅ JULY 19, 2012 ⋅ 4 COMMENTS

Introduction As digital forensic practitioners, we are faced regularly with s utilizing the internet to swop and copyrighted and contraband material. Peer to peer (P2P) applications are commonly used for this purpose, and like any software application, they is ever changing, and ever evolving. This paper will discuss how the P2P software application, FrostWire v.5, functions and what artifacts can be found and examined for forensic purposes. The software application mentioned is one of the more popular P2P, applications.

Problem Statement P2P ing of copyrighted media and contraband is a significant problem. The sheer proliferation of these applications in various forms, requires digital forensic examiners to be aware of the potential evidential artifacts that can exist in them. With developers constantly changing and evolving their software, the artifacts change, and they find new ways to make it more protected for their s. The problem discussed in this paper, is what evidential artifacts are left by using FrostWire v.5, and what evidential value do they contain.

Research Methodology The of the following 1 of 7 research was conducted by way of practical experimentation making use 29/01/2015 11:48 πμ experimental protocols.


Step 1:


The hard drive on the laptop used in the experiment was forensically sanitized and validated . Step 2: The Windows 7 Standard operating system was installed on the laptop used, with default settings selected. Step 3: FrostWire v.5 was installed on the laptop, and was ed from www.FrostWire.com. Step 4: FrostWire v.5 was installed using the standard method and keeping the default settings. Step 5: The test laptop was connected to the internet and FrostWire v.5 was executed and a search was conducted for various Linux distributions. Step 6: Based on the results of Step 5, various files were selected and ed using FrostWire v.5 and once completed it was shut down. Step 7: The test laptop was shut down and the hard drive forensically imaged. Step 8: The forensic image made of the test laptop was loaded into FTK 4.0 with default automatic data carving enabled. Once completed the image was examined and all artifacts identified as being linked to FrostWire v.5 documented.

Data Artifacts Found and Examined [root]/xxx/FrostWire This folder contains five subfolders that contain the actual .torrent files and the actual media that has been ed. The subfolders contained within the abovementioned folder are: Incomplete: Within this folder, the temporary tracker of the media is saved while in the process of 2 of 7being ed, this is the metaphorical 29/01/2015 11:48 πμ bookmark that enables the software to stop and start



as the wishes. Saved: This folder contains the artifacts of .torrent files that the wishes to save- to be able to at another time. Shared: This folder contains all the .torrent trackers that the has ed or created. FrostWirev.5 enables the creation of .torrent trackers. Torrent Data: Possibly one of the most important folders, this is where the software saves the actual ed media.This is a system automated process, which remains standard. Torrent: This folder contains the actual .torrent tracker file, which is the tracker and that is created to the requested item. For each item ed, two entries are created -A .torrent file is created that contain the creation time, the SHA 1 value of the ed item, and from where it was ed. The second entry created is in unallocated space, which contains the exact same information.

[root]/xxx/AppData/Roaming/FrostWire This folder essentially contains a few very important artifacts, which contain important evidentiary information on what was ed. Createtimes.cache: This cache file contains the SHA-1 value that is assigned to all ed media when a .torrent file is created and ed to the distribution websites. The SHA-1 value is that of the whole file when it was originally ed.This is verified once the item has been ed to ensure that the right and complete item has been ed. .dat: This database file contains all the names, identification SHA-1 values of all the files and media ed by the using FrostWire v.5. This can be used to identify what was ed when the actual physical items are no longer on the machine. Fileurns.cache & Fileurns.bak: These two files essentially contain the same information. When a is started the software logs the SHA-1 value of the file to ensure that the completed file is ed. The SHA-1 value can be used to identify whether a certain item matched the online version of the said file. FrostWire.props: This property file contains the selection made by the upon installation. Here you can determine what changes have been made to the default settings of FrostWire v.5. Hostiles.txt: This contains a log of all subnet Masks currently running on the FrostWire v.5 network. Library.dat: This database is of all media that is saved by the to the FrostWire v.5 library, even if it was not physically ed onto the machine.

Registry Artifacts: The registry keys SOFTWARE, SECURITY,SYSTEM and the Nt.dat were examined and the following artifacts or changes were identified: 3 of 7

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HKEY/LOCAL NT.DAT as


MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Current Version: (These changes can be seen in the well)

This contained the following relevant information of the software FrostWire v.5: Display Name Publisher Help Link URL URL Info Display Version Uninstall Command HKEY/LOCAL MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Classes: This contained the following relevant information of the software FrostWire v.5: FrostWire Toolbar FrostWire.exe files location. HKEY/LOCAL

MACHINE/SOFTWARE/FrostWire:

This contained the following relevant information of the software FrostWire v.5: The executable command used to access and run FrostWire v.5. 4. HKEY/LOCAL MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Tracing:This contained the following relevant information of the software FrostWire v.5: This contains two tracing mechanisms that Microsoft uses to manage and monitor software, which is the Rasapi 32 command and the RASMANCS command. The information saved is saved in [root]/ProgramData/Microsoft/Search/Data/Applications/Windows/GatherLogs/SystemIndex /SystemIndex.gthr: HKEY/LOCAL

MACHINE/SYSTEM:

For FrostWire v.5 to be able to function, a change has to be made within how the system operates: When installing FrostWire v.5, the software automatically change the FireWall policy to create an exception to allow communication from FrostWire v.5 and the ing servers, thus bying the firewall completely. 6. HKEY/LOCAL MACHINE/SECURITY: 7. No changes could be identified within this registry key.

Identifying Searches Done Using FrostWire v.5: 4 of 7 29/01/2015 11:48 When a searches for a specific item to , that search is stored in various places on the localπμ


machine:


1. [root]/$Logfile: Contains the search term searched for, where it was found along with the SHA-1 identification hash value. 2. [root]/ProgramData/Microsoft/Search/Data/Applications/Windows/GatherLogs/SystemIndex /SystemIndex.gthr: The header information contained within this gather log, is the search term and how the system and the software communicated.This information is gathered by the two tracing protocols mentioned early Rasapi 32 and RASMANCS. 3. [root]s/xxx/.FrostWire/search_db.h2.db :This is the database that FrostWire v.5 uses to record all searches done by the s.The information recorded is the following: URL Details, where the .torrent file is residing. The search term searched. The magnet link and corresponding SHA-1 hash value. The creation date in Unix that .torrent tracker was created. 4. [root]s/xxx/.FrostWire/search_db/search_db/_28.tii: This is the actual entry in the database for each search term done by the .This contained what the search term was and the corresponding file ID. 5. [root]s/xxx/.FrostWire/search_db_searchdb__28.tis:This is a record of the search results for the particular search term, meaning that for every .tii file a corresponding .tis file can be found.

Examining a .torrent File and the Artifacts Found: The file header for .torrent files in hex is: 0x64 38 3A 61 6E 6E 6F 6F 63 65 35 39 (As viewed in hex) d8:announce59 (As viewed in text) Contained in this .torrent file is the following information: File

Meaning

http://tracker.torrentbox.com

The website that the .torrent file was ed to and stored on

2710

The initial port used to communicate to the website initially.

5 of 7

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77.247.176.132:80

The IP address communicated with along with the port used for ing.

1238229350

Unix creation date of the torrent.

Linux Books

The name of the item ed.

31C8D8C7748C9CC8090C4C2A

Identification hash value.

SHA-1

Summary FrostWire v.5 contains a number of potential evidential artifacts that can prove useful in an investigation in proving what has taken place on a computer using this P2P application. A key observation, is that the artifacts that are generated when using FrostWire v.5 illustrate the Locard Principle in relation to P2P application, in that for every interaction, there will be a trace left behind.

Discussion

4 thoughts on “Forensic Examination of FrostWire version 5” 1. How does the frostwire props file determine the creation and last accessed date? Is the .props file written over every time you reboot the program? POSTED BY ANN MARIE | JULY 21, 2012, 9:11 AM REPLY TO THIS COMMENT 2. How are the creation and last accessed dates for the props file determined? Do these change? I read somewhere that it was rewritten every time you reboot the program, is this true? POSTED BY AMSUTTER | JULY 21, 2012, 9:13 AM REPLY TO THIS COMMENT there is a11:48 sha-1πμ 6 of3.7Can you elaborate more on the hash values found in the s.config? I know 29/01/2015 hash located under an items torrent_hash value. I know this hash corresponds to a .DAT file inside



the ‘active folder’. The name of the file is the hash value . I cannot seem to piece these hashes with the hash of the actual file nor the torrent file. What is the importance of the hash value (torrent_hash) in the s.config?

Also, I have looked into the search_db, depending on what updates you install for version 5, will dictate whether or not you can search for search in search_db. Were you successful in finding your search term? I found unless you knew the search term, you would need to parse out all of the hits and then find the common word and that would be your search term. This was a huge change from the early versions of Frostwire where it had your search saved. POSTED BY JOHN | JULY 30, 2012, 5:23 PM REPLY TO THIS COMMENT 4. The Frostwire.props file does not reset everytime it is rewritten. The rumor is that you can set the software to wipe the search results when you close the software. I do concure that there are updates that has changed items in the search_db since I did the paper. FTK did parse out the database with my search results, this was easier as I had a controlled enviroment and believe it mgith be more difficult in practise. The hash values are made by using an alorgorhytm which is software specific. I am experimenting with each update to determine changed POSTED BY VERONICASCHM | AUGUST 16, 2012, 7:18 PM REPLY TO THIS COMMENT

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