For The Project, Conduct A Forensics Investigation Using A N ✓ Solved

For the project, conduct a forensics investigation using a n

For the project, conduct a forensics investigation using a network (ideally a wireless network). Ensure you have written permission to investigate any system you do not personally control; otherwise use a personal system such as your home network. Review various forensics tools for the selected system. Select one tool and use it to gather forensic data for analysis (simulation of data gathering is acceptable). Prepare a two-page, double-spaced Executive Summary that describes the device or system you will investigate and the intended tool you plan to use. Provide references in APA format.

Paper For Above Instructions

Executive Summary — Wireless Home Network Forensics Using Wireshark

This executive summary describes the device/system selected for the forensics project (a personal home wireless network) and identifies Wireshark as the primary forensic tool for simulated packet capture and analysis. The objective is to outline a lawful, repeatable workflow for network-level evidence collection, preservation, and preliminary analysis, consistent with best practices in incident response and digital forensics (Kent et al., 2006; Casey, 2011).

System Description

The target environment is a personal home wireless network composed of a wireless access point (router), several client devices (laptops, smartphones, IoT devices), and the ISP uplink. The investigative scope will be confined to traffic observable within the home network: wireless frames in the 2.4/5 GHz bands, associated management and control frames, and IP-layer traffic between clients and the router or external servers. Using a personal network eliminates third-party authorization issues; if another system is used, written permission will be obtained before any data collection (Kent et al., 2006).

Selected Tool: Wireshark

Wireshark (Combs, 2023) is chosen as the primary tool. It is an open-source, widely used packet capture and analysis tool capable of decoding hundreds of protocols and producing packet-level evidence artifacts in pcap format. Wireshark supports both live capture (when the NIC supports monitor or promiscuous mode) and offline analysis of capture files, making it suitable for this simulated forensic exercise (Orebaugh, Ramirez, & Beale, 2006).

Rationale for Tool Selection

Wireshark offers several forensic advantages: detailed protocol parsing for identifying suspicious flows, rich filtering expressions to isolate artifacts of interest, timestamped packet records for timeline construction, and exportable evidence formats (.pcap) that are standard in network forensics (Bejtlich, 2013). Its ubiquity ensures reproducibility and the ability to share captures with peers or examiners (Combs, 2023).

Legal and Ethical Considerations

Before any capture, legal authorization and privacy considerations will be addressed. For investigations on networks not personally owned, written consent is mandatory (Kent et al., 2006). In a home lab simulation, capture will be limited to devices owned by the investigator. All collected data will be handled as potential evidence: documented chain of custody, storage on write-protected media, and cryptographic hashing of pcap files will be applied (Casey, 2011).

Data Collection Methodology

Capture will be performed on a laptop with a wireless NIC capable of monitor mode or by connecting a mirrored port on the router or using an access point that supports packet capture. The procedure includes:

  • Time synchronization of capture host via NTP to ensure reliable timestamps (Bejtlich, 2013).
  • Enabling monitor/promiscuous mode and starting capture with Wireshark, using capture filters to limit data volume (e.g., capture only management frames and traffic to/from suspect devices) (Combs, 2023).
  • Recording metadata: start/stop times, NIC identifiers, capture host, and network topology notes.
  • Saving captures to a local file, computing SHA-256 hashes, and storing the original capture on write-protected media for preservation (Casey, 2011).

Expected Artifacts and Analysis Plan

Network-level artifacts likely to be useful include: wireless probe and association frames, MAC addresses, DHCP transactions (IP allocation), ARP records, DNS queries/responses, HTTP metadata and payloads for unencrypted traffic, TLS session metadata (SNI, certificate info), and observable anomalies such as ARP spoofing or unusual DNS resolution patterns (Bejtlich, 2013; Vacca, 2014). The analysis plan is:

  1. Initial triage: use Wireshark display filters to enumerate client MACs, DHCP leases, and DNS activity.
  2. Timeline creation: extract timestamps to construct a chronological account of relevant interactions (Casey, 2011).
  3. Protocol analysis: inspect suspicious sessions (e.g., long-lived outbound connections, repeated failed authentication attempts) and extract metadata for further correlation (Sommer & Paxson, 2010).
  4. Export artifacts: export relevant packets or conversation summaries as evidence files and compute hashes for each export (Combs, 2023).
  5. Document findings: produce an incident log detailing filters used, queries run, and interpretations of artifacts.

Preservation, Validation, and Reporting

Preservation follows NIST guidance: original captures will be preserved as read-only, hashes recorded, and analysis performed on copies. Validation includes replicating key filters and ensuring that exported artifacts produce consistent hashes across repeated exports (Kent et al., 2006; Casey, 2011). The final deliverable will be an Executive Summary roughly two pages in double-spaced format describing the system, tool selection, capture methodology, expected artifacts, preliminary findings from simulated captures, and suggested next steps for a full investigation.

Limitations and Mitigations

Limitations include encrypted traffic (TLS/VPN) which conceals payloads; however, metadata such as IPs, SNI, and certificate information remain useful (Bejtlich, 2013). Wireless captures may miss frames if set in the wrong channel; channel hopping or multiple capture points can mitigate this (Orebaugh et al., 2006). Finally, large capture volumes require disciplined filtering and archival strategies to remain manageable (Vacca, 2014).

Conclusion

Wireshark provides a practical, well-supported platform for initial network forensics on a home wireless network. Combined with rigorous documentation, legal authorization where required, and adherence to evidence-handling best practices, the outlined approach will support a defensible simulated forensic investigation suitable for the project deliverable (Combs, 2023; Kent et al., 2006).

References

  1. Bejtlich, R. (2013). The Practice of Network Security Monitoring: Understanding Incident Detection and Response. No Starch Press.
  2. Carrier, B. (2005). File System Forensic Analysis. Addison-Wesley Professional.
  3. Casey, E. (2011). Digital Evidence and Computer Crime: Forensic Science, Computers and the Internet (3rd ed.). Academic Press.
  4. Combs, G. (2023). Wireshark User's Guide. Wireshark Foundation. https://www.wireshark.org/docs/
  5. Kent, K., Chevalier, S., Grance, T., & Dang, H. (2006). Guide to Integrating Forensic Techniques into Incident Response (NIST SP 800-86). National Institute of Standards and Technology. https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/SP/nistspecialpublication800-86.pdf
  6. Orebaugh, A., Ramirez, G., & Beale, J. (2006). Wireshark & Ethereal Network Protocol Analyzer Toolkit. Syngress.
  7. Ruan, K., Carthy, J., Kechadi, T., & Crosbie, M. (2013). Cloud Forensics: An Overview. In Advances in Digital Forensics IX (pp. 35–46). Springer.
  8. Sommer, R., & Paxson, V. (2010). Outside the Closed World: On Using Machine Learning for Network Intrusion Detection. IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, 305–316.
  9. Vacca, J. R. (2014). Computer and Information Security Handbook (2nd ed.). Elsevier.
  10. Netresec. (2020). NetworkMiner - Network Forensic Analysis Tool. Netresec AB. https://www.netresec.com/?page=NetworkMiner

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