Libaff4 -
LibAFF4 is an implementation of the AFF4 standard. It is still in a very early stage of development but it allows people to have a play with the new standard. This page documents it.
Installing LibAFF4
See: c-aff4: INSTALL
Taking an image
Probably the first step is to actually acquire the image. Right now there is no fancy interface or GUI - its just a simple commandline:
AFF4/tools$ sudo aff4imager -i -o /tmp/test.zip /dev/sda1 Imaging Mode selected Dumping segment urn:aff4:dd3102c1-370d-4b15-83e7-5a1991b5a9e1/00000000 (55425084 bytes) Dumping segment urn:aff4:dd3102c1-370d-4b15-83e7-5a1991b5a9e1/00000001 (33314018 bytes) Dumping segment urn:aff4:dd3102c1-370d-4b15-83e7-5a1991b5a9e1/00000002 (3011613 bytes) Dumping segment urn:aff4:dd3102c1-370d-4b15-83e7-5a1991b5a9e1/00000003 (51756091 bytes) Creating a link object 'default' for stream 'urn:aff4:dd3102c1-370d-4b15-83e7-5a1991b5a9e1' 
We can see the imager dumping a new zip file with the default settings. By default bevies are 64Mb in size. The aff4imager tool reports each new bevy which is saved to disk and the size it ended up taking (after compression). Finally we see a link object is created to the new stream to make it easier to access it (so we dont need to remember the long URN for it).
Applying the Sleuthkit patch
There is a patch to sleuthkit for adding support to AFF4. The patch is against sleuthkit-3.0.1.
tar -xvzf sleuthkit-3.0.1.tgz cd sleuthkit-3.0.1 patch -p1 < /path/to/AFF4/patches/sleuthkit-3.0.1.patch ## The following is needed to get the autoconf system to pick up the changes libtoolize --force aclocal -I config autoheader automake autoconf ## Now build it as normal ./configure make install 
Currently the Sluethkit patch does not work with autodetection - hence it must be specified explicitely using -i aff4.
AFF4 is a bit different since it refers not only to a volume, but to a stream within the volume. The convension is to specify the stream as the last parameter after the volumes. So for example, to open the stream created in the example above:
$ fls -i aff4 /tmp/test.zip default zip.c:51 - FileBackedObject_Con: Can't open file:///tmp/test.zip/__URN__ (Not a directory) libaff4.c:27 - open_volume: Loaded zip volume file:///tmp/test.zip zip.c:51 - FileBackedObject_Con: Can't open file://default/__URN__ (No such file or directory) zip.c:51 - FileBackedObject_Con: Can't open file://default (No such file or directory) libaff4.c:100 - aff4_open: Trying to open stream default relative to all volumes libaff4.c:107 - aff4_open: Trying urn:aff4:aeb9ed57-8dbe-4506-9fb8-e4106bf0767d/default libaff4.c:122 - aff4_open: Using urn:aff4:dd3102c1-370d-4b15-83e7-5a1991b5a9e1 as the stream name d/d 11: lost+found r/r 10043: System.map-2.6.22-14-generic r/r 6025: vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic r/r 10041: config-2.6.22-14-generic r/r 10042: abi-2.6.22-14-generic r/r 13: initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic d/c 44177: grub r/r 6029: initrd.img-2.6.24-21-generic r/r 12: initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic.bak ..... 
The debugging messages above are instructive to explain the logic of how libaff4 opens the volumes. Since you can specify any number of volumes of the command line you can see that libaff4 first tries to open the volume as a directory volume, if that fails, it tries to open it as a zip file. The last element is assumed to be a volume name and if no such volume is found, its assumed to be a stream name. Then the stream name is searched in all the volumes specified. Finally the stream name is resolved (since its a link it returns the URN of the original stream).
Signing images
The easiest way to get a private key and a corresponding X.509 certificate is to make a self-signed certificate using the openssl command.
openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:1024 -keyout sign.key -out sign.key -nodes 
This command will ask you a bunch of questions; the results are stored in the file sign.crt. When you create a signed AFF4 file the certificate will be stored in the file, so be careful what you say. Alternatively, you can create an RSA private/public key pair, create a certificate request (CSR), send the CSR to a certificate authority, and use the certificate that the authority sends you back.
Note that this puts both the key and the self-signed certificate in the same file. That's fine for our purposes. The certificate will be copied into the AFF4 volume, but the private key will never be copied.
You can view the contents the certificate with this openssl command:
openssl x509 -text -in sign.key 
By loading the key and crt files, libaff4 will add the hash of each new segment written to a new statement. When the file is closed, the statement will be written to the volume.
$ aff4imager -i -o /tmp/test.zip --key sign.key --cert sign.key /dev/sda1 Imaging Mode selected identity.c:58 - Identity_load_certs: Will now sign using private key file://sign.key identity.c:88 - Identity_load_certs: Will use public key from file://sign.key to verify signatures Dumping segment urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000000 (55425084 bytes) Dumping segment urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000001 (33314018 bytes) Dumping segment urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000002 (3011613 bytes) Dumping segment urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000003 (51756091 bytes) Creating a link object 'default' for stream 'urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f' zip.c:746 - ZipFile_open_member: Volume does not contain member urn:aff4:identity/41:38:13:1b:96:d3:f6:65:e0:87:60:07:f5:ff:31:19:24:93:e0:13/cert.pem 
The last debug statement indicates that the certificate file in not present in the volume, therefore it is added. It is instructive to see what segments are present in the zip volume:
$ unzip -l /tmp/test.zip Archive: /tmp/test.zip urn:aff4:89f8ec58-13f0-4ad4-b1f2-74da7f3aed40 Length Date Time Name -------- ---- ---- ---- 55425084 04-25-09 21:54 urn%3Aaff4%3Afda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000000 8196 04-25-09 21:54 urn%3Aaff4%3Afda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000000.idx 33314018 04-25-09 21:54 urn%3Aaff4%3Afda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000001 8196 04-25-09 21:54 urn%3Aaff4%3Afda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000001.idx 3011613 04-25-09 21:54 urn%3Aaff4%3Afda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000002 8196 04-25-09 21:54 urn%3Aaff4%3Afda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000002.idx 51756091 04-25-09 21:54 urn%3Aaff4%3Afda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000003 6552 04-25-09 21:54 urn%3Aaff4%3Afda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000003.idx 209 04-25-09 21:54 urn%3Aaff4%3Afda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/properties 115 04-25-09 21:54 default/properties 1251 04-25-09 21:54 urn%3Aaff4%3Aidentity/41%3A38%3A13%3A1b%3A96%3Ad3%3Af6%3A65%3Ae0%3A87%3A60%3A07%3Af5%3Aff%3A31%3A19%3A24%3A93%3Ae0%3A13/00000000 128 04-25-09 21:54 urn%3Aaff4%3Aidentity/41%3A38%3A13%3A1b%3A96%3Ad3%3Af6%3A65%3Ae0%3A87%3A60%3A07%3Af5%3Aff%3A31%3A19%3A24%3A93%3Ae0%3A13/00000000.sig 3820 04-25-09 21:54 urn%3Aaff4%3Aidentity/41%3A38%3A13%3A1b%3A96%3Ad3%3Af6%3A65%3Ae0%3A87%3A60%3A07%3Af5%3Aff%3A31%3A19%3A24%3A93%3Ae0%3A13/cert.pem 242 04-25-09 21:54 urn%3Aaff4%3Aidentity/41%3A38%3A13%3A1b%3A96%3Ad3%3Af6%3A65%3Ae0%3A87%3A60%3A07%3Af5%3Aff%3A31%3A19%3A24%3A93%3Ae0%3A13/properties -------- ------- 143543711 14 files 
As can be seen, the certificate is stored within the volume. Lets have a look at the statement:
$ unzip -p /tmp/test.zip urn%3Aaff4%3Aidentity/41%3A38%3A13%3A1b%3A96%3Ad3%3Af6%3A65%3Ae0%3A87%3A60%3A07%3Af5%3Aff%3A31%3A19%3A24%3A93%3Ae0%3A13/00000000 urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000000 aff4:sha256=RaOr4ksNZo+bXKMYDw2hwaAMqV9/4/TXqTE1P/7ERO8= urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000000.idx aff4:sha256=k4uSgGyYp0xeBdnpCWAY4sJilijn9sU9nmRkbzPl5LQ= urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000001 aff4:sha256=0Xf/VVaJe2RZ8eH9ACUTHWp8TXYdq5a/7hkdTn1eYGU= urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000001.idx aff4:sha256=9szVqgGIFHT7OxtWiopk7rP4HSsl4H+nHmnNVhqSjLg= urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000002 aff4:sha256=P6jENcyLn137Jl5QNCauQvviIXR/VSp7o7r0iNUDHX0= urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000002.idx aff4:sha256=EzXJ4eyJNYzKCUVc1U3vRzgLA+GhLCmsSkkcwholeqs= urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000003 aff4:sha256=ImM/kFyvDqkWa3A6HitIFtJaXf2gWpEx8knYWSMiVoE= urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000003.idx aff4:sha256=Lm2yB+tVw8yB1ia9MXIxkdRT8oXk1/2db9sFg48ZuoM= urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/properties aff4:sha256=9h9x5sd7ZxCKqWbcdLYVq7MM9AH7c6BI5DpCJrxCXUc= urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f aff4:sha256=fuy15WT9G5YpAh6PdLGxeCezoWtV6QryqnOhYvnV1Fc= urn:aff4:89f8ec58-13f0-4ad4-b1f2-74da7f3aed40/default/properties aff4:sha256=2uxWY7B51oUa94B3hMU1iF1vZUNUdFPo/hNDUIrduCA= 
Verifying signatures and inspecting AFF4 files
We wish to verify the above volume and learn more about the objects contained within it:
$ aff2imager -l /tmp/test.zip -V -I zip.c:51 - FileBackedObject_Con: Can't open file:///tmp/test.zip/__URN__ (Not a directory) libaff4.c:27 - open_volume: Loaded zip volume file:///tmp/test.zip Info mode selected identity.c:88 - Identity_load_certs: Will use public key from urn:aff4:identity/41:38:13:1b:96:d3:f6:65:e0:87:60:07:f5:ff:31:19:24:93:e0:13/cert.pem to verify signatures urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000000 (segment): (OK) urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000000.idx (segment): (OK) urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000001 (segment): (OK) urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000001.idx (segment): (OK) urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000002 (segment): (OK) urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000002.idx (segment): (OK) urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000003 (segment): (OK) urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000003.idx (segment): (OK) urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/properties (image): (OK) urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f (segment): (OK) urn:aff4:89f8ec58-13f0-4ad4-b1f2-74da7f3aed40/default/properties (segment): 0 MB ******** Object urn:aff4:89f8ec58-13f0-4ad4-b1f2-74da7f3aed40 *********** aff4:stored = file:///tmp/test.zip aff4:type = zip_volume aff4:interface = volume aff4:contains = urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000000 aff4:contains = urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000000.idx aff4:contains = urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000001 aff4:contains = urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000001.idx aff4:contains = urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000002 aff4:contains = urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000002.idx aff4:contains = urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000003 aff4:contains = urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000003.idx aff4:contains = urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/properties aff4:contains = urn:aff4:89f8ec58-13f0-4ad4-b1f2-74da7f3aed40/default/properties aff4:contains = urn:aff4:identity/41:38:13:1b:96:d3:f6:65:e0:87:60:07:f5:ff:31:19:24:93:e0:13/00000000 aff4:contains = urn:aff4:identity/41:38:13:1b:96:d3:f6:65:e0:87:60:07:f5:ff:31:19:24:93:e0:13/00000000.sig aff4:contains = urn:aff4:identity/41:38:13:1b:96:d3:f6:65:e0:87:60:07:f5:ff:31:19:24:93:e0:13/cert.pem aff4:contains = urn:aff4:identity/41:38:13:1b:96:d3:f6:65:e0:87:60:07:f5:ff:31:19:24:93:e0:13/properties ******** Object file:///tmp/test.zip *********** aff4:contains = urn:aff4:89f8ec58-13f0-4ad4-b1f2-74da7f3aed40 ******** Object urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f/00000000 *********** aff4:stored = urn:aff4:89f8ec58-13f0-4ad4-b1f2-74da7f3aed40 aff4:type = segment aff4:interface = stream aff4:timestamp = 0x49F2F9E2 aff4:size = 0x34DB83C aff4:sha256 = RaOr4ksNZo+bXKMYDw2hwaAMqV9/4/TXqTE1P/7ERO8= ---> Signed by urn:aff4:identity/41:38:13:1b:96:d3:f6:65:e0:87:60:07:f5:ff:31:19:24:93:e0:13 .... 
There is no need to specify certificates now since the certificate is given in the volume itself. The -V flag asks each object in the statement to be verified. We see as each object's hash is matched, an "(OK)" is printed.
Finally we see all the attributes of all the objects stored in the volumes specified. If any of these fact are also verified in an identity statement, we see a message indicating who signed this segment (The identity name is the certificate fingerprint).
Fuse support
Fuse is a library to create a filesystem in userspace. Its very easy to use and very powerful since it allows userspace programs to create abstracted filesystem like views into data. LibAFF4 has a fuse interface to allow access to the streams within a set of volumes. This feature is useful in order to allow other software to have access to the streams without needing specific AFF4 support.
$ affuse -d -- /tmp/test.zip /tmp/fuse zip.c:51 - FileBackedObject_Con: Can't open file:///tmp/test.zip/__URN__ (Not a directory) libaff4.c:27 - open_volume: Loaded zip volume file:///tmp/test.zip unique: 1, opcode: INIT (26), nodeid: 0, insize: 56 ... 
The trick here is that the aff4use program uses the -- option to separate options specific to fuse (before the --) to options specific to libaff4 (after the --). The -d option requests fuse not fork into the background, but instead remain at the terminal and provide debugging messages. The /tmp/fuse directory is just somewhere to mount the fuse filesystem over.
Note that aff4fuse provides access to all objects with a stream interface. This will include all segments, but does not include identities or volumes. All relative URNs (like links) are placed at the root of the filesystem, and the full complicated URNs are placed in URN/ subdirectory (just in case we need to access a stream without a link).
$ ls -l /tmp/fuse/ total 0 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1 2009-04-25 21:54 default -r--r--r-- 1 root root 254951424 1970-01-01 10:00 default.dd drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1 2009-04-25 21:54 __URN__ $ fls /tmp/fuse/default.dd d/d 11: lost+found r/r 10043: System.map-2.6.22-14-generic r/r 6025: vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic r/r 10041: config-2.6.22-14-generic r/r 10042: abi-2.6.22-14-generic .... 
When you are finished and wish to unmount the filesystem:
$ fusermount -u /tmp/fuse 
Creating map streams for filesystems
Map streams are a great idea since they allow different mutations of the same data to be stored with zero cost. One application is to extract the block allocation table of a filesystem using sleuthkit and create maps for each file in the filesystem. This way applications dont know or care how to parse filesystems, since the underlying forensic format can present the data to them.
The map streams can be put into a new volume which simply refer to the old volume:
$ fsbuilder -o /tmp/test2.zip /tmp/test.zip default zip.c:51 - FileBackedObject_Con: Can't open file:///tmp/test.zip/__URN__ (Not a directory) libaff4.c:27 - open_volume: Loaded zip volume file:///tmp/test.zip zip.c:51 - FileBackedObject_Con: Can't open file://default/__URN__ (No such file or directory) zip.c:51 - FileBackedObject_Con: Can't open file://default (No such file or directory) zip.c:51 - FileBackedObject_Con: Can't open file://default/__URN__ (No such file or directory) zip.c:51 - FileBackedObject_Con: Can't open file://default (No such file or directory) libaff4.c:100 - aff4_open: Trying to open stream default relative to all volumes libaff4.c:107 - aff4_open: Trying urn:aff4:89f8ec58-13f0-4ad4-b1f2-74da7f3aed40/default libaff4.c:122 - aff4_open: Using urn:aff4:fda4d4fa-c378-4a06-acac-06ff54f49d5f as the stream name File name urn:aff4:fafe0c11-0544-4eab-ae8a-3ee568f53f7c/System.map-2.6.22-14-generic File name urn:aff4:fafe0c11-0544-4eab-ae8a-3ee568f53f7c/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic File name urn:aff4:fafe0c11-0544-4eab-ae8a-3ee568f53f7c/config-2.6.22-14-generic File name urn:aff4:fafe0c11-0544-4eab-ae8a-3ee568f53f7c/abi-2.6.22-14-generic .... 
As can be seen the fsbuilder tool creates new map streams for each new file found in the stream. The map streams are pushed to a new volume. Its possible now to fuse mount everything.
Using HTTP for evidence management
In practice, most large practitioners will need to manage and archive vast quantity of evidence. Its generally impossible to keep all the evidence you will ever need on the drive of your analysis system, and even if you get a vary large SAN its challanging to keep everything handy.
By allowing evidence to be managed by HTTP its possible to distribute the evidence around any number of HTTP servers, which can be deployed at any location throughout the corporate WAN. This allows very cheap storage to be used and the flexibility to move images around the network at will.
Similarly, current technologies for remote imaging are complex and proprietary. In a corporate LAN environment, for example, its beneficial to push the image directly to an imaging server from the target machine booted from a boot CD for example. Its nice to be able to do so with no prior preparation.
Since AFF4 uses URNs to describes all objects in the AFF4 universe, and a URL is just a special kind of URN, it is possible to describe everything in terms of URLs too. For example, its possible to specify certificates, keys, and other file names as a URL as well (which means they can reside on a HTTP server). For example, its possible to encrypt the private key and place it on a HTTP server to allow an investigator to sign an acquisition from anywhere on the network without having to manage their own keys and certificates.
Similarly its possible for investigators to create the image directly on the HTTP server using webdav. This section will discuss how to do this with an Apache2 server, but clearly since webdav is a standard its possible to use any other webserver too.
Note: Windows XP webdav support is widely known to be very buggy. If it works it may be possible to "open a web folder" to mount the remote webdav folder.
Apache configuration
Our goal with this configuration is to allow anyone read access to the images with no authentication, but to require authentication for writing on the webdav directory:
<VirtualHost *:80> <Directory /var/www/webdav> DAV On AuthType Basic AuthName "test" AuthUserFile /etc/apache2/passwd.dav <Limit PUT POST DELETE PROPFIND PROPPATCH MKCOL COPY MOVE LOCK UNLOCK> Require valid-user </Limit> </Directory> </VirtualHost> 
You can add usernames to the password file /etc/apache2/passwd.dav using the htpasswd utility.
Now its possible to image directly there:
aff2imager -i -o http://test:password@localhost/webdav/test.zip /dev/sda1