EnCase Logical Evidence File (LEF) Forensics

Learn the concept of extracting information from LEF Files

EnCase Digital Forensics Tool

EnCase forensics tool has become quite famous among the digital forensics investigators owing to its efficiency in extraction of all kinds of evidences. One of the most common file format supported by the EnCase forensics tool is LEF format i.e., logical evidence files. It facilitates the experts to save the selected EnCase evidences file in an image based file. It maintains an exact copy of the evidences, which can further be used for court proceedings or other references. So, the investigators can choose to save the selected crucial evidences into the logical Evidence Files, which can be further used for information analysis. However, the EnCase evidence files are not in the human readable format, which makes the EnCase forensics analysis a challenging task for the experts.

EnCase Forensics Tool

Significance of Logical Evidence Files

The EnCase Logical Evidence Files play a considerable role in the present scenario where digital forensics is a kind of boom for fighting against cyber crimes or other network related activities. While investigating a crucial case, the first task faced by the investigators is to collect the evidences from various sources. Now, when the artifacts are acquired the experts find it mandatory to save the selected acquisitions into a suitable file without compromising with integrity and consistency. One such reliable format is EnCase LEF files, which facilitates the experts to archive selected evidences in a safe manner. These files maintain the digital acquisitions in a consistent and original format. EnCase forensics tool allows saving the required artifacts without extracting the complete hard disk. It can be beneficial for maintaining confidentiality of the case as the experts can choose to share only the required artifact with the team members without sharing complete evidences.
So, the EnCase LEF files can be analyzed by the experts to get detailed information of the extracted evidences in an image based format. It can serve as a medium to understand the important details and progress of the case. It can be said that the logical evidence files pose to be quite reliable and efficient in every terms of data consistency, integrity and authenticity.

What Information can be Extracted from EnCase Forensics Tool?

The logical evidence files help in the detailed analysis of evidences from the preview, existing sources, or smart phones etc. The detailed study of the EnCase LEF files helps the investigator to understand various aspects related to the case. The file contains a complete information of the extracted evidence without any kind of consistency issue. So, the experts generally prefer to maintain a number of logical evidence files so that the team can efficiently analyze the existing evidences.
The EnCase LEF files when studied properly provides the following information about the case:

  • Digital Evidence - It creates an accurate image of the extracted evidences, which helps the investigators to understand the nature of case. A detailed study of evidences may help the forensics team to make progress in the case.
  • Evidence Parameters - In addition to the actual evidences, the file also carries other parameters, which help in clear understanding of nature of the case and other aspects. Some of the major parameters related to artifacts are:
    1. Name: It indicates the name of the EnCase LEF file
    2. Evidence Number: It signifies the unique identification number for the evidence
    3. Case Name: It denotes the significant name of the case, to which EnCase LEF files belongs
    4. Examiner Name: It represents the name of examiner who has published the LEF
    5. Notes: It is the additional note, which may be added by the expert at the time of file creation

How LEF Maintains Evidence Integrity

Since EnCase LEF files investigation belong to the most confidential domain of digital forensics, the data integrity and its confidentiality are the key requirements. The file format has been designed in a way to maintain the authenticity and integrity by the means of hash algorithm. When an EnCase LEF file is created, the expert Is asked to choose the kind of encryption. The most common encryption applied is MD5 that encrypts the file into a secure and non-readable script. The encrypted file is locked with the public or private keys to provide authenticity. EnCase forensics investigation simply verifies the MD5 hash coding to verify the authenticity of the encrypted logical evidence files. If any kind of mismatch is found, EnCase digital forensics tool indicates the error by an asterisk. So this kind of strict encoding and hashing algorithms make the use of EnCase LEF reliable. The experts trust these files owing to the encryption and authenticity feature of the logical evidence files.

EnCase Forensics Analysis Observation

As per the examination, EnCase forensics analysis is a challenging task because maintaining the integrity while examining the EnCase LEF files is a difficult task. Many cases have been observed where the experts had to lose the crucial evidences from the LEF files due to poor consistency offered by the applications. Some investigators find that the data automatically gets formatted while examining the logical files. Thus, all these situations are not healthy for forensics experts and lead to loss of important evidences. It is always recommended to make a wise choice for analysis of such crucial information. One such reliable software is MailXaminer, which can easily scan & View EnCase LEF files. It provides a detailed analysis of the evidence files in actual formatting and consistency. It can serve as a powerful tool for experts in the clear analysis of evidences without any data alteration or manipulation.