Digital Forensics Cookbook: Field-Tested Recipes for Real-World Investigations Across Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android

Learn the workflows professionals use to triage systems, uncover hidden activity, recover deleted evidence, crack encrypted containers, analyze Windows memory, and detect tampering using realistic hands-on forensic datasets.

Key Features

• Master field-tested workflows for triage, acquisition, and cross-platform analysis
• Uncover hidden activity, recover evidence, defeat encryption, and detect tampering
• Build hands-on investigation skills using realistic datasets across major platforms
• Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF ebook

Book Description

Modern investigations and incident response efforts live and die by digital evidence. Digital Forensics Cookbook uses realistic datasets and practical workflows drawn from real investigations to uncover the truth hidden inside computers, mobile devices, and online accounts.

Rather than focusing on theory alone, this book moves you through the investigative process from triage and acquisition to artifact analysis, memory forensics, encryption challenges, malware triage, and detecting anti-forensic behavior. Along the way, you’ll perform remote artifact collection, analyze evidence across Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android systems, investigate cloud-synced accounts, recover deleted data, manually carve evidence when tools fail, and identify attempts to hide or manipulate data.

As you progress through the book, you’ll learn how to write and apply regular expressions and SQLite queries, build system timelines, baseline systems, automate analysis, verify findings across independent sources, generate custom password dictionaries to crack encrypted containers, detect metadata tampering designed to mislead investigators, and analyze Windows memory. By the end, you won’t just know how to run forensic tools; you’ll understand how investigators think, enabling you to turn scattered digital traces into clear, defensible conclusions.

What you will learn

• Perform triage and acquire evidence during live investigations
• Collect artifacts remotely using incident response workflows
• Analyze evidence across Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android
• Recover deleted data and manually carve evidence when tools fail
• Crack encrypted containers using custom password dictionaries
• Use regex and SQLite queries to uncover hidden investigative clues
• Detect anti-forensic techniques and metadata tampering
• Analyze Windows memory using Volatility to uncover live artifacts

Who this book is for

This book is for digital forensic investigators, incident responders, and security professionals who want to build practical investigation skills using real-world workflows and realistic datasets. It’s also ideal for students and analysts entering the field who want hands-on experience recovering evidence, analyzing artifacts, and thinking like an investigator.

Table of Contents

1. Targeted On-Scene Triage
2. Network Intrusion Response and Remote Triage
3. Physical and Cloud-Based Evidence Acquisition
4. Microsoft Windows
5. Apple macOS and Linux
6. Apple iOS and Android
7. Analysis Automation
8. User Artifacts
9. Manual Analysis and Techniques
10. Overcoming Anti-Forensics
11. Memory Forensics

Cody Bounds is an investigator and expert witness with more than a decade of experience in digital forensic analysis and criminal investigations. He has a degree in Computer Information Systems and holds multiple related certifications from digital forensic and technology industry leaders including GIAC, IACIS, CompTIA, Magnet, and Cellebrite. Currently working a full-time law enforcement position within an Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) affiliated task force and also providing contractual digital forensics training, he is devoted to teaching others and investigating those who seek to exploit children online.