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Web Browser Forensics in Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and the Tor Browser Bundle

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Digital Forensic Education

Part of the book series: Studies in Big Data ((SBD,volume 61))

Abstract

Browsers are widely used on personal computers, laptops and mobile devices. In this chapter, we seek to determine and compare which forensic artifacts can be recovered from Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, their respective private modes, and TOR. Our analysis was primarily conducted using FTK in order to replicate the process and abilities of a digital forensics lab with limited resources. After identical data generation across all browsers and modes of browsing in a controlled virtual environment, forensic images were captured then analyzed. This research not only extends the current field of digital forensics for which artifacts can be found in which locations, but also confirms various claims in regards to the privacy of private browsing modes. As expected, all data was recovered from regular browsing modes, very minimal data from private browsing, and almost no artifacts from TOR.

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Correspondence to Atul Shukla .

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Nelson, R., Shukla, A., Smith, C. (2020). Web Browser Forensics in Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and the Tor Browser Bundle. In: Zhang, X., Choo, KK. (eds) Digital Forensic Education. Studies in Big Data, vol 61. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23547-5_12

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