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Difficulty: MediumDigital Forensics and Chain of Custody

An incident response team is performing live evidence collection on an enterprise web application server following a detected code injection attack. To preserve forensic integrity, in what sequence should the analyst collect the following data sources, ordered from most volatile to least volatile?

  1. 1CPU cache and register contents
  2. 2System RAM and ARP cache
  3. 3Swap file and pagefile data
  4. 4Local solid-state drive (SSD) image
  5. 5Offsite backup tapes and archival media

Answer

The correct sequence from most volatile to least volatile is: CPU cache and register contents, System RAM and ARP cache, Swap file and pagefile data, Local solid-state drive (SSD) image, and Offsite backup tapes and archival media.
Digital evidence acquisition must adhere strictly to the Order of Volatility (RFC 3227). Data must be collected starting with the most short-lived and fragile sources: CPU registers/cache first, followed by RAM/routing tables, swap files, local persistent disks, and lastly offline archival media.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the standard forensic Order of Volatility principles (RFC 3227).
Recognized that evidence acquisition must prioritize data sources based on how quickly they can be lost or altered.
Capturing highly perishable data first prevents essential evidence from being overwritten during operational steps.
2
Rank CPU registers and cache as the top priority.
Placed CPU cache and register contents in position 1.
CPU cache registers operate at nanosecond speeds and clear or overwrite continuously.
3
Rank System RAM and network routing/ARP tables as second priority.
Placed System RAM and ARP cache in position 2.
RAM contains live system memory and active connection states lost as soon as power is cut.
4
Rank temporary virtual memory and swap/pagefile data as third priority.
Placed Swap file and pagefile data in position 3.
Although written to storage media, swap files change rapidly as operating system virtual memory pages.
5
Rank persistent local storage and offsite archives in the remaining final positions.
Placed local SSD image in position 4 and offsite backup tapes in position 5.
Non-volatile disk drives and offline archives maintain persistence over extended time frames.

Key Concept

Order of Volatility
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Topics

Digital Forensics and Chain of Custody

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