Federated Testing Project | NIST
New Mobile Device Acquisition Tool and Cloud Data Extraction federated testing templates available for download below!
The Federated Testing project is an expansion of the CFTT program. The goal of Federated Testing is to help digital forensics investigators test and, if desired, share their results within the digital forensics community. Note that the CFTT's approach to tool testing is to test a tool based on functionalities. 
Available Test Suites:
There are 3 types of test suites using different testing infrastructure: 1) Mobile Device Acquisition Tools Test Suite - used to test mobile and related tools. It is being expanded to also test analysis tools; 2) Portable Web Server - this can be used to test analysis tools, and 3) a complete test environment - this is needed for testing disk imaging and write blocking.
1. Mobile Device Acquisition Tools Test Suite (Windows OS)
NOTE: The following Word report templates help you capture and recording your tool test results for Mobile Device Acquisition and Cloud Data Extraction. Navigate to the links for individual setup and specs test instructions.
Word Report Templates:
Click here to download the Mobile Device Acquisition template.
Click here to download the Cloud Data Extraction template.
SQLite template. Coming Soon.
String Search template. Coming Soon.
* If you wish to share your test results with us and have them published, send them to cftt@nist.gov.
2. Federated Testing Portable Web Server for Windows OS - Analysis Tools
The current version (2.0) of CFTT's Federated Testing Portable Web Server can be used to test SQLite data recovery, forensic string search, and mobile forensics data extraction tools. This creates a light environment. Note that you will need the tool, the read me file, and datasets. See links below.
Click here to download version 2 of CFTT's Federated Testing.
Click here to view the Federated Testing Readme file.
SHA256 hash of FedTest.zip : 7AE47FCE0972A06E2E2C6AAB80EA991B23459FA3B26FEFA53E5679FA17E4233D
*If you are testing a forensic string search tool, you will need to also download the string search test suite’s companion data set from this page. Click the ‘browse data set’ button then enter the text: string search, the file you need is ‘String Search, V1.1’.
*If you are testing an SQLite recovery tool, you will need to also download the SQLite test suite’s companion data set. Click here to view the readme for this suite.
3. Federated Testing - ISO LINUX - Virtual Machines - Disk Imaging, String Search and Write Blocking
The Federated Testing .iso can be used to test disk imaging, forensic media preparation, forensic string search, hardware write blocking, and mobile forensics data extraction tools. The Mobile Device Acquisition Tools Test Suite and the Portable Web Server tools are easier to run, so we recommend them for analysis tools testing. This tool is ONLY needed for low level testing. The test suites are packaged together in a live Linux .iso file.
To test your tool using the Federated Testing test suites:
Download the latest Federated Testing live Linux .iso file (see the links to the Linux downloads below) and use it to create either a bootable flash drive or a bootable DVD. One can use the free Rufus tool to create a bootable flash drive from an .iso file.
Insert the bootable flash drive or DVD into your forensic workstation and boot to it (you may need to change your computer's boot options to select your flash drive or DVD drive as your boot device). NOTE: to test Hardware Write Blocking and Disk Imaging tools you must boot a computer using a Federated Testing flash drive or DVD; when testing other types of tools however, e.g., a Mobile Forensics Data Extraction tool, one may consider booting a virtual machine in lieu of a computer.
Use the user interface (Firefox Web browser) to select the type of tool you want to test. The user interface will tell you what items you will need to have on hand to get started.
Use the interface to generate the test cases for testing your tool and follow the instructions to run each test.
Use the interface to generate a test report for your tool.
(Optional) Submit the test report and the log files created during testing to CFTT to share with the digital forensics’ community! See the Sharing Test Results section below for instructions on how to share your test results.
There are two versions (64-bit and 32-bit) available:
Federated Testing ISO LINUX 64-bit beta version:
Click here to download our CFTT Federated Testing 64-bit ISO beta version file. This version contains the complete test suites for all modules including forensic string search, and mobile forensics data extraction tools.
NOTE: However, if using the mobile forensic data extraction suite, we advise that you use the Word Mobile Device Acquisition Tool results report template, mentioned above, which includes the latest changes to the report's layout.
Click here to view the Federated 64-bit Readme.
ISO file SHA256 value: 30A5D75BE958255EFA4834909626E2F2608FF35D93247A98482D98A0E5A47191
If you are testing a forensic string search tool, you will need to also download the string search test suite’s companion data set from the Federated Testing Test Data Sets section of this page.
Best browser download option: Google Chrome
Federated Testing ISO LINUX 32-bit version:
Click here to download version 5 of CFTT's Federated Testing live Linux .iso file (contains test suites for testing disk imaging, forensic media preparation, forensic string search, hardware write blocking, and mobile forensics data extraction tools).
ISO file SHA1 value: B4162A68FF3B2D902DFDDD4F256273FE1B5015A4
If you are testing a forensic string search tool, you will need to also download the string search test suite’s companion data set from the Federated Testing Test Data Sets section of this page.
NOTE: This ISO contains legacy test material and is designated for use on 32bit machines only.
A goal of the Federated Testing project is to produce tool test results that can be shared throughout the digital forensics community. Our Federated Testing test suites allow any lab, agency, individual or vendor to test their tools using the same test methodology CFTT uses. The final step of this process is to generate a test report for the tool. Our test suites generate that test report for you in a common format that makes it easy for you and others to understand how the tool was tested and what the test results are. if a word template for the functionality or feature you are testing is available above, we advise that you use the template to record your results instead. If someone has already tested a tool for the features you use in your lab, you can take advantage of their results in your evaluation of the tool. Click on the links below to access all test reports published, including Federated Testing reports. (NOTE that sharing reports is NOT a requirement for using federated testing)
Disk Imaging Tool Test Reports
Mobile Device Tool Test Reports
Hardware Write Block Tool Test Reports
Forensic String Search Tool Test Reports
Forensic Media Preparation Tool Test Reports
Sharing Test Results
Email your test reports produced using CFTT’s Federated Testing test suites and a zipped copy of the testing log files to cftt@nist.gov to share your results with the digital forensics community. CFTT staff will review your logs and the test results documented in the test reports before sharing the reports with the community. Shared test reports from Federated Testing will be publicly available through this website. 
Email Notifications
Email federatedtesting+subscribe@list.nist.gov to subscribe to the federatedtesting(at)list.nist.gov mailing list. Federatedtesting(at)list.nist.gov is a low volume mailing list for distributing updates on the Federated Testing project (e.g., new releases/versions and test suites).
Created May 8, 2017, Updated May 1, 2026