Top Digital Forensics Tools (2023)

Wondering which digital forensics tools are making waves in the cybersecurity landscape? You’ve come to the right place.

In this guide, we walk you through an extensive list of Digital Forensics Tools used by cybersecurity experts for hard drive investigations, mobile data extraction, network packet analysis, and more.

By the end of this guide, you’ll be well-equipped to make an informed choice for your investigative needs.

Reza Rafati

Autopsy

Autopsy is a top-notch, open-source digital forensics platform designed for effective hard drive investigations. Crafted by Basis Technology, it encompasses vital features common in commercial forensic tools, offering a thorough and swift solution adaptable to your requirements. It provides training, subscription-based support, and custom modules to enhance investigative processes. With a global user base among law enforcement and corporate cyber investigators, it’s a trusted tool in the digital forensics community. Its development team also creates tools like Cyber Triage for efficient incident responses to cyber threats​.

Encase Forensics

EnCase Forensic, by OpenText, is a robust digital forensic tool that unveils digital evidence to assist law enforcement and government bodies in expediting case resolutions, thereby enhancing public safety. With over two decades of trust from global investigators, attorneys, and judges, it stands as a pioneering solution in the digital forensic realm, delivering dependable investigation outcomes

Get EnCase Forensic by OpenText

The Forensic Toolkit (FTK) by Exterro

The Forensic Toolkit (FTK) by Exterro facilitates various digital forensic tasks including full-disk imaging, decrypting files, cracking passwords, parsing registry files, managing mobile data, processing datasets containing Apple file systems, and employing visualization technology to better interpret data. It’s designed to streamline the investigative process by offering a centralized database for diverse data types and cutting down on search and OCR time, among other efficiencies​.

X-Ways Forensics

X-Ways Forensics is a comprehensive digital forensics and data recovery software. It aids in examining disk images, conducting in-depth analyses, and recovering lost data. The tool caters to professional forensic analysts and provides a robust set of features for handling various investigative tasks efficiently.

Get X-Ways Forensics

The Sleuth Kit (TSK)

The Sleuth Kit (TSK) is an open-source library and collection of command-line digital forensics tools. It enables the analysis of disk images and recovery of data from them. Paired with Autopsy, a graphical interface, it provides a comprehensive platform for digital investigations.

Get TheSleuthKit from the team at sleuthkit.org

The Volatility Framework

The Volatility Framework, maintained by the Volatility Foundation, is an open-source memory forensics tool designed for digital investigations. It’s written in Python and offers various options for download including zip and tar archives, Python module installers, and standalone executables, facilitating its use in diverse environments​.

Wireshark

Wireshark is a widely-used network packet analyzer that allows users to see what’s happening on their network at a microscopic level. It’s utilized for network troubleshooting, analysis, software and communications protocol development, and education.

Cellebrite UFED (Universal Forensics Extraction Device)

Cellebrite UFED (Universal Forensics Extraction Device) is a powerful tool employed for the extraction and analysis of data from mobile devices, primarily utilized by law enforcement agencies. It provides solutions for bypassing complicated locks, encryption barriers, and recovering deleted or obscured content to unveil critical evidence. UFED offers a range of products such as UFED Physical Analyzer, UFED Logical Analyzer, and UFED Phone Detective, among others, to cater to various investigative needs.

Forensic Email Collector

Forensic Email Collector is a tool designed for the preservation of email evidence in a user-friendly manner. It facilitates in-place searches on mail servers prior to data acquisition, securing only the search results. Forensic Email Collector can capture Google Drive attachments, authenticate access to mailboxes, and collect server metadata crucial for legal proceedings. This tool supports a wide range of email servers and cloud email providers, ensuring comprehensive connectivity for digital forensic and eDiscovery projects​. It is being sold for $1099.

Get the Forensic Email Collector at metaspike.com.

Digital Forensics Framework (DFF)

Digital Forensics Framework (DFF) is an open-source software utilized for computer forensics. It aids professionals and non-experts in collecting, preserving, and revealing digital evidence without compromising the integrity of systems and data.

The framework features a graphical user interface and a command line interface, catering to a variety of users for digital investigation. It’s compatible with Linux and Windows, and can be obtained through source code packages, binary installers, or operating system distributions like Debian, Fedora, and Ubuntu​.

Magnet AXIOM by Magnet Forensics

Magnet AXIOM is a digital forensic software developed by Magnet Forensics. It’s designed to recover and analyze evidence from various digital sources including computers, mobile devices, and cloud services. The software allows for a comprehensive examination of digital evidence in a single case, providing a streamlined workflow for forensic investigators. It also supports the analysis of data from a wide range of apps and services, ensuring thorough investigations.

Oxygen Forensic Detective

Oxygen Forensic Detective is a comprehensive forensic software platform designed to extract, decode, and analyze data from numerous digital sources like mobile devices, IoT devices, and cloud services. It also retrieves a wide range of artifacts and system files from various operating systems.

The software employs advanced technologies to bypass screen locks, locate passwords to encrypted backups, and uncover deleted data, among other capabilities.

It aims to provide a complete picture of the data for analysis, making it suitable for law enforcement and corporate investigators​. On the official website you can get access to OFD with the 15-day free trial they have.

OSForensics: Swift data discovery

OSForensics facilitates swift data discovery through potent file searching and indexing, enabling password extraction, file decryption, and recovery of deleted files across Windows, Mac, and Linux systems.

It aids in evidence identification via hash matching and drive signature analysis, offering a comprehensive analysis of all files and automatic timeline creation of user activity.

Moreover, it provides a 360° Case Management Solution to manage digital investigations, build custom reports, and incorporate reports from other tools​.

Learn more about OSForensics

DJI inspector

Do you have a drone with some data on it that you need to investigate? Well, then you should give the DJI Forensics kit a go.

NetworkMiner

NetworkMiner is an open-source Network Forensic Analysis Tool (NFAT) primarily designed for Windows, but it also works on other platforms like Linux, Mac OS X, and FreeBSD. It can function as a passive network sniffer and packet capturing tool to detect various network parameters like operating systems, sessions, hostnames, and open ports without generating any network traffic.

NetworkMiner can extract artifacts such as files, images, emails, and passwords from captured network traffic in PCAP files, and it can also capture live network traffic by sniffing a network interface.

• View the open source code at Netresec
• Download NetworkMiner

RegRipper 3.0

RegRipper3.0 is a version of RegRipper, a tool found in Kali Linux. It’s a forensic tool used to parse and analyze Windows Registry data to extract valuable information for investigations. This tool is part of a series of releases aimed at enhancing forensic analysis through Registry data extraction​. The project itself seems to be disbanded.

Bulk extractor

Bulk Extractor is a forensic tool that scans disk images, files, or directories to extract useful information without parsing file system structures. It’s notable for its speed and thoroughness, with the ability to process different parts of a disk in parallel, making it significantly faster on multi-core machines. It can handle a variety of digital media including hard drives, SSDs, and optical media, among others, and is suited for law enforcement, defense, intelligence, and cyber-investigation applications​.

Download Bulk Extractor

Ghiro: Digital Image Forensics Tool

Ghiro is a digital image forensics tool designed to automate the forensic analysis of a large number of images. Through its web interface, users can upload and analyze images, navigate reports, and manage cases. It extracts and categorizes metadata, reads geotags for GPS localization, identifies MIME types, performs error level analysis to detect digital modifications, extracts thumbnails, checks thumbnail consistency, utilizes a signature engine to highlight critical data, and matches hashes to identify specific images​.

Get Ghiro and get started

HxD – Freeware Hex Editor and Disk Editor

HxD is a fast, well-designed hex editor that also offers raw disk editing and RAM modification. It handles files of any size and presents a user-friendly interface with features like search and replace, exporting, checksums, byte pattern insertion, file shredding, and more. Editing resembles a text editor experience, simplifying technical differences. Notable features include a RAM editor, Disk-Editor for various disk types, instant file opening regardless of size, flexible search/replace functions, data export in various formats, basic data analysis, and a modern, easy-to-use interface​.

Get HxD

More Digital Forensics Tools

So, yeah, there are a lot of digital forensics tools, and to help you forward, I have made this sorted list of 46 tools that are worth to be explored.

1. AccessData Forensic Toolkit (FTK)
2. AccessData FTK Imager
3. Axiom Cyber
4. Autopsy
5. Belkasoft Evidence Center
6. BlackLight
7. Bulk Extractor
8. CAINE (Computer Aided INvestigative Environment)
9. CAINE Live
10. Cellebrite UFED
11. DC3DD
12. DEFT (Digital Evidence & Forensic Toolkit)
13. Digital Forensics Framework (DFF)
14. EnCase
15. EnCase Imager
16. Forensic Email Collector
17. Fibratus
18. Ghiro
19. Guymager
20. HxD
21. Kali Linux
22. Magnet AXIOM
23. NetworkMiner
24. Ngrep
25. OSForensics
26. Oxygen Forensic Detective
27. Paladin
28. PhotoRec
29. Plaso (log2timeline)
30. PyFlag
31. Raptor
32. Redline
33. RegRipper
34. Scalpel
35. Sleuth Kit
36. Snort
37. SIFT (SANS Investigative Forensic Toolkit)
38. TestDisk
39. The Sleuth Kit (TSK)
40. Tcpdump
41. Volatility
42. Volatility Framework
43. Wireshark
44. WinHex
45. XRY (XAMN)
46. X-Ways Forensics

That is a wrap

You are now stocked with knowledge on dozens of cybersecurity tools that can help you with your forensics. Share this massive list forward and let us know which tool you like to use the most.