Test Results for Write-Protected Drive: Apricorn

Secure Key NX Firmware Version 04444

Federated Testing Suite for Hardware Write Blocking 

June 2020
This report was prepared for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) by 

the Office of Law Enforcement Standards of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

For additional information about ongoing DHS S&T cybersecurity projects, please visit https://www.dhs.gov/science-andtechnology/cybersecurity
June 2020

Test Results for Write-Protected Drive:

Apricorn Secure Key NX Firmware Version 0444

Federated Testing Suite for Hardware Write Blocking
Contents

Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 5

How to Read This Report ............................................................................................................... 6

1 Device Description.................................................................................................................. 7

2 Testing Organization............................................................................................................... 7

3 Results Summary .................................................................................................................... 7

4 Test Environment .................................................................................................................... 7

5 Test Result Details by Case .................................................................................................... 8

5.1 FT-HWB-USB ................................................................................................................. 8

5.1.1 Test Case Description ............................................................................................... 8

5.1.2 Test Drive Description.............................................................................................. 8

5.1.3 Test Evaluation Criteria ............................................................................................ 8

5.1.4 Test Case Results...................................................................................................... 8

5.1.5 Case Summary .......................................................................................................... 8

6 Appendix: Additional Details................................................................................................. 9

6.1 FT-HWB-USB ................................................................................................................. 9

6.1.1 USB 3 ........................................................................................................................ 9

6.2 Test Setup & Analysis Tool Versions ............................................................................ 10

ii
June 2020 Page 5 of 10 Apricorn Secure Key NX 0444 

Introduction 

The Computer Forensics Tool Testing (CFTT) program is a joint project of the Department of 

Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), the National Institute of 

Justice (NIJ), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Programs 

Office and Information Technology Laboratory (ITL). CFTT is supported by other organizations, 

including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Defense Cyber Crime 

Center, U.S. Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division Electronic Crimes 

Program, and the DHS Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and 

Border Protection and U.S. Secret Service. The objective of the CFTT program is to provide 

measurable assurance to practitioners, researchers, and other applicable users that the tools used 

in computer forensics investigations provide accurate results. Accomplishing this requires the 

development of specifications and test methods for computer forensics tools and subsequent 

testing of specific tools against those specifications.

Test results provide the information necessary for developers to improve tools, users to make 

informed choices, and the legal community and others to understand the tools’ capabilities. The 

CFTT approach to testing computer forensics tools is based on well-recognized methodologies 

for conformance and quality testing. Interested parties in the computer forensics community can 

review and comment on the specifications and test methods posted on the CFTT web site 

(https://www.cftt.nist.gov/).

This document reports the results from testing the read-only function of the Apricorn Secure Key 

NX device firmware version 0444 using the CFTT Federated Testing Test Suite for Hardware 

Write Blocking, Version 3.1.

Federated Testing is an expansion of the CFTT program to provide forensic investigators and 

labs with test materials for tool testing and to support shared test reports. The goal of Federated 

Testing is to help forensic investigators test the tools that they use in their labs and enable 

sharing of tool test results. CFTT’s Federated Testing Forensic Tool Testing Environment and 

included test suites can be downloaded from https://www.cftt.nist.gov/federated-testing.html and 

used to test forensic tools. The results can be optionally shared with CFTT, reviewed by CFTT 

staff, and then shared with the community. 

Test results from this and other tools can be found on DHS’s computer forensics web page, 

https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/nist-cftt-reports. 
How to Read This Report

This report is organized into the following sections: 

1. Tested Device Description. The device name, version and vendor information are listed.

2. Testing Organization. Contact information and approvals. 

3. Results Summary. This section identifies any significant anomalies observed in the test 

runs. This section provides a narrative of key findings identifying where the device meets 

expectations and provides a summary of any ways the device did not meet expectations. 

The section also provides any observations of interest about the device or about testing 

the device, including any observed limitations on device use.

4. Test Environment. Description of hardware and software used in device testing.

5. Test Result Details by Case. Automatically generated test results that identify anomalies.

6. Appendix: Additional details. Additional details for each test case.

June 2020 Page 6 of 10 Apricorn Secure Key NX 0444 
Federated Testing Test Results for Write-Protected Drive: 

Apricorn Secure Key NX Firmware Version 0444

1 Device Description 

Device Name: Secure Key NX 

Firmware Version: 0444 

Manufacturer Contact:

Manufacturer: Apricorn

Address: 12191 Kirkham Road

Poway, CA 92064

Tel: (800) 458-5448

WWW: https://www.apricorn.com

2 Testing Organization 

Organization conducting test: Apricorn 

Contact: Kevin Su 

Report date: 8-22-19 

Authored by: Mark D 

3 Results Summary 

Data on the test device was unchanged.

4 Test Environment 

Hardware: tests were run using a computer with an ASUS ROG STRIX B450-F Gaming 

motherboard, AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Six Core CPU, and 16 GB DDR4 Corsair memory. 

Secure Key NX, firmware version 0444. Put the drive in read-only mode before testing to repeat 

the tests.

June 2020 Page 7 of 10 Apricorn Secure Key NX 0444 
5 Test Result Details by Case 

This section presents test results grouped by case.

5.1 FT-HWB-USB

5.1.1 Test Case Description

Test a USB key or USB portable drive’s ability to write-protect when Read-Only mode is 

enabled. Test the ability of the USB key or USB portable drive to block write commands from 

the ATA and SCSI command sets issued from a test computer. 

5.1.2 Test Drive Description

Manufacturer, model & size of the test drive used for this test: Secure Key NX (ASK3-NX-xGB) 

configured in read-only mode; 32GB used for the test. 

5.1.3 Test Evaluation Criteria

The number of ‘writes not blocked’ should be 0. 

5.1.4 Test Case Results

The following table presents results for the test case. 

Test Results for FT-HWB-USB

Computer to Drive Connection Write Commands Sent Writes Not Blocked

USB 3 36 0

5.1.5 Case Summary

Test drive unchanged. 

June 2020 Page 8 of 10 Apricorn Secure Key NX 0444 
6 Appendix: Additional Details 

6.1 FT-HWB-USB

6.1.1 USB 3 

/usr/lib/cgi-bin/test-hwb Tue Sep 24 16:20:50 2019

@(#) test-hwb.c Linux Version 1.3 created 05/17/18 at 15:05:48 

compiled May 17 2018 15:06:05 with gcc Version 5.4.0 20160609

@(#) wrapper.c Linux Version 1.5 support lib created 08/03/17 at 13:05:44 

@(#) ataraw.c Linux Version 1.3 support lib created 08/03/17 at 13:05:44 

@(#) ataraw.h Linux Version 1.3 created 08/03/17 at 13:06:12

cmd: /usr/lib/cgi-bin/test-hwb -bh -p /media/cftt/FT-LOGS/FT-HWB-usb/ Mark_D.

AMD5 FT-HWB-usb usb3 usb /dev/sdc 

operator: Mark_D.

host: AMD5

test case: FT-HWB-usb 

connection type: usb3 

drive/media type: usb 

device: /dev/sdc

device type (ATA or SCSI - /usr/lib/cgi-bin/test-hwb tries to guess): 

SCSI

Opcode

30h

CAh

CCh

C5h

Command Name Status

(ATA) WRITE SECTOR(S) Sent

(ATA) WRITE DMA Sent

(ATA) WRITE DMA QUEUED Sent

(ATA) WRITE MULTIPLE Sent

Lba/Sector

12288

51712

52224

50432

Result

Unchanged

Unchanged

Unchanged

Unchanged

31h

CBh

3Ch

34h

39h

CEh

3Bh

35h

3Dh

36h

3Eh

3Ah

(ATA) WRITE SECTOR(S) Sent

w/o retries

(ATA) WRITE DMA w/o retries Sent

(ATA) WRITE VERIFY Sent

(ATA) WRITE SECTOR(S) EXT Sent

(ATA) WRITE MULTIPLE EXT Sent

(ATA) WRITE MULTIPLE FUA EXT Sent

(ATA) WRITE STREAM EXT Sent

(ATA) WRITE DMA EXT Sent

(ATA) WRITE DMA FUA EXT Sent

(ATA) WRITE DMA QUEUED EXT Sent

(ATA) WRITE DMA QUEUED FUA EXT Sent

(ATA) WRITE STREAM DMA EXT Sent

12544

51968

15360

13312

14592

52736

15104

13568

15616

13824

15872

14848

Unchanged

Unchanged

Unchanged

Unchanged

Unchanged

Unchanged

Unchanged

Unchanged

Unchanged

Unchanged

Unchanged

Unchanged

38h

CDh

(ATA) CFA WRITE SECTORS

W/O ERASE

(ATA) CFA WRITE MULTIPLE

Sent 

Sent

14336

52480

Unchanged

Unchanged

C0h

0Ah

2Ah

AAh

8Ah

7Fh

2Eh

AEh

8Eh

7Fh

41h

93h

W/O ERASE

(ATA) CFA ERASE SECTORS

(SCSI) WRITE 6

(SCSI) WRITE 10

(SCSI) WRITE 12

(SCSI) WRITE 16

(SCSI) WRITE 32

(SCSI) WRITE AND VERIFY 10

(SCSI) WRITE AND VERIFY 12

(SCSI) WRITE AND VERIFY 16

(SCSI) WRITE AND VERIFY 32

(SCSI) WRITE SAME 10

(SCSI) WRITE SAME 16

Sent

Sent

Sent

Sent

Sent

Sent

Sent

Sent

Sent

Sent

Sent

Sent

49152

2576

10768

43536

35344

32528

11792

44560

36368

32529

16656

37648

Unchanged

Unchanged

Unchanged

Unchanged

Unchanged

Unchanged

Unchanged

Unchanged

Unchanged

Unchanged

Unchanged

Unchanged

June 2020 Page 9 of 10 Apricorn Secure Key NX 0444 
7Fh (SCSI) WRITE SAME 32 Sent 32530 Unchanged

3Fh (SCSI) WRITE LONG 10 Sent 16144 Unchanged

9Fh (SCSI) WRITE LONG 16 Sent 40720 Unchanged

32h (ATA) WRITE LONG Sent 12800 Unchanged

33h (ATA) WRITE LONG w/o retries Sent 13056 Unchanged

45h (ATA) WRITE UNCORRECTABLE EXT Sent 17664 Unchanged

36 writes sent, 0 write(s) not blocked, 0 write commands unsupported.

RESULTS: test drive unchanged

run start Tue Sep 24 16:20:50 2019

run finish Tue Sep 24 16:20:50 2019

elapsed time 0:0:0 

Normal exit

Status Key:

Sent - the ioctl used to send this command returned without error and the 

ATA error bit (if applicable) was not set.

Not supported - the ioctl used to send this command returned with an 

error status or the command completed with the ATA error bit set.

Test terminated - the test was terminated for dangerous commands because 3 

or more previous commands were not blocked.

Result Key:

Unchanged - no changes to the test drive were detected.

Not Blocked - sending this command resulted in a change to the test drive. 

This command was NOT blocked!

n/a - Not applicable.

6.2 Test Setup & Analysis Tool Versions

Version numbers of tools used are listed. 

Setup & Analysis Tool Versions 

test-hwb.c Linux Version 1.3 created 05/17/18 at 15:05:48 

Tool: @(#) ft_hwb_prt_test_report.py Version 1.2 created 04/26/18 at 10:11:19 

OS: Linux Version 4.13.0-37-generic

Federated Testing Version 3.1, released 5/25/2018 

June 2020 Page 10 of 10 Apricorn Secure Key NX 0444