E-Locus - Institutional Repository of the University of Crete

Home Collections School/Department School of Sciences and Engineering Department of Computer Science Post-graduate theses

Post-graduate theses

Current Record: 4 of 824

[Add to Basket]

Identifier

000463772

Title

Employing encryption workarounds to support digital forensics investigations

Alternative Title

Εκμετάλλευση παρακάμψεων κρυπτογραφίας για την υποστήριξη ψηφιακών εγκληματολογικών ερευνών

Author

Καλοχριστιανάκης, Διονύσιος Αριστοτέλης Γ.

Thesis advisor

Μαρκάτος, Ευάγγελος
Μανιφάβας, Χάρης

Reviewer

Τζίτζικας, Γιάννης
Μαγκούτης, Κώστας

Abstract

The use of encryption in our everyday lives is ubiquitous. For example, encryption is utilized to secure communications between two parties, authenticate users when logging to a service or even certify that websites are legitimate. How-ever, criminals can also benefit from the use of encryption hiding their traces of illicit activities and making law enforcement agencies unable to proceed with their criminal investigations due to being locked out of digital evidence. During the last decade the problem became more apparent as more and more law enforcement agencies reported being blocked from investigating criminals due to the abuse of encryption by them. This sparked the “Going Dark” Debate across the globe. From one hand, law enforcement and intelligence agencies pushed for weakened encryption policies and establishing encryption countermeasures for lawful access. On the other hand, institutions for human rights condemned this approach because it would diminish the privacy and security of everyone. With no clear solution to the debate on policy level, the concept of encryption workarounds was introduced that bridges the gap between the legal and the technological aspects of the debate. To support this approach, we present existing encryption workarounds that are able to bypass encryption or leverage weaknesses in the cryptographic implementation of certain desktop software applications, with a focus on Windows systems. More importantly we categorize the methods into filesystem and memory analysis, we test and modify them to make them function properly. Additionally we validate that they meet the criteria of being forensically sound so that they can be used in criminal investigations by law enforcement and be accepted in a court of law. Finally, we present AWLPS, a platform that performs several encryption workarounds through a Graphical User Interface. AWLPS, is designed to provide data integrity and a forensically sound methodology when decrypting electronic evidence. Furthermore, it can be expanded through a Plugin architecture, allowing for the integration of new encryption workaround modules, thus enhancing the platform’s durability over time.

Language

English

Subject

Cryptography

Encryption problem

Κρυπτογραφία

Πρόβλημα κρυπτογράφησης

Ψηφιακή εγκληματολογία

Issue date

2024-03-22

Collection

School/Department--School of Sciences and Engineering--Department of Computer Science--Post-graduate theses