Summary

In this chapter, we learned what the goal of a forensic examination is and how the discovery of the checkm8 vulnerability provides new opportunities for data acquisition from iOS devices.

First, we introduced the iOS operating system and discussed some key elements of its security architecture, such as Secure Enclave and Data Protection. Then, we went through the steps of an iOS forensic examination.

The first step is seizing the device and adopting techniques to preserve evidence, such as placing the device in a Faraday bag or enabling Airplane mode. There are different ways to acquire data from an iOS device, depending on the model, iOS version, and what tools are available. This chapter covered logical and filesystem acquisition techniques, as well as jailbreaking and agent-based extractions.

Analyzing artifacts should be done by following a thorough validation process that ensures that commercial tools produce consistent results and that evidence has been processed in a forensically sound way.

Finally, we learned what key elements should be included in a forensic report.

The next chapter will discuss iOS data acquisition in detail and provide a hands-on approach to the tools that are used to conduct a forensic examination.