Domain 5 of 6 · Chapter 4 of 6

Digital Forensics

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Included in this chapter:

  • Why cloud forensics is different
  • The standards: NIST SP 800-86 and the ISO/IEC family
  • Order of volatility and acquiring ephemeral cloud evidence
  • Chain of custody and evidence management across the provider boundary
  • Exam-pattern recognition: how 5.4 items are written

Forensic standards and where they apply

StandardScopeForensic phase it governsCloud relevance
NIST SP 800-86Integrating forensics into incident responseAll four: collection, examination, analysis, reportingThe end-to-end process model investigators run on cloud artifacts
ISO/IEC 27037Handling digital evidenceIdentification, collection, acquisition, preservationDefines how to acquire and preserve virtual artifacts defensibly
ISO/IEC 27041Investigation assuranceSuitability and validation of the methodShows the chosen cloud-collection method is fit for purpose
ISO/IEC 27042Analysis and interpretationExamination and analysisGuides interpreting acquired cloud evidence consistently
ISO/IEC 27050Electronic discovery (eDiscovery)Legal preservation and productionGoverns producing cloud-stored ESI for litigation
RFC 3227Evidence collection and archivingCollection orderingSets the order-of-volatility sequence for perishable cloud data

Decision tree

For litigation / eDiscovery?producing ESI for a caseISO/IEC 27050eDiscovery; legal holdYesCollecting / preserving?acquire the evidenceNoISO/IEC 27037handle evidence; RFC 3227order of volatility, hash firstYes: acquireExamine / analyze data?interpret findingsNoISO/IEC 27042analysis + interpretationYesNIST SP 800-86whole 4-phase processNo: overallAlways: chain of custody + hash at every stepdocument who/what/when/where/why; preserve before remediating
Cheat sheet

Cheat sheet

  • In the cloud you cannot image the physical disk, so acquire virtual artifacts
  • Multi-tenancy stops you from capturing a whole host
  • Cloud compute is ephemeral, so preserve before it auto-terminates
  • Collect by order of volatility: most perishable first
  • Isolate a compromised instance, do not power it off
  • Snapshot the volume as the cloud equivalent of disk imaging
  • NIST SP 800-86 defines the four-phase forensic process
  • ISO/IEC 27037 governs handling, collecting, and preserving evidence
  • Keep 27037 and 27050 straight: handle the evidence vs produce it for court
  • The ISO/IEC forensics family splits by phase: 27037, 27041, 27042, 27043
  • Chain of custody is the unbroken record that makes evidence admissible
  • Hash each artifact at collection and re-verify at every transfer
  • Cloud chain of custody crosses the provider boundary
  • Forensic cooperation must be in the provider contract before an incident
  • Acquire with least disturbance: copy and snapshot, do not mutate
  • Evidence management means restricted, logged storage of every artifact
  • Synchronize clocks before correlating forensic timelines
  • Export provider logs promptly because they age out on a retention clock
  • Forensics begins where detection ends
  • Data location uncertainty complicates cloud forensics and jurisdiction
  • A legal hold overrides retention policies, so suspend automated deletion first
  • Use a legal hold when the preservation duration is unknown
  • WORM / Compliance-mode immutability blocks deletion even by privileged or root users
  • In the eDiscovery lifecycle, preservation follows identification and protects the ESI
  • SaaS gives the customer the least forensic control, complicating chain of custody
  • Suspend a running VM before imaging so before/after hashes can validate

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References

  1. CSA Security Guidance for Critical Areas of Focus in Cloud Computing
  2. NIST SP 800-86 — Guide to Integrating Forensic Techniques into Incident Response Whitepaper
  3. NIST SP 800-101 Rev. 1 — Guidelines on Mobile Device Forensics Whitepaper
  4. RFC 3227 — Guidelines for Evidence Collection and Archiving Whitepaper