Understand what your tools miss. This three-part forensic guide takes you deep into GPT-partitioned disks, showing you how to manually interpret the Protective MBR, GPT Header, and Partition Entry Array.
You’ll learn to:
• Identify and explain GPT structures in hex
• Recover partitions manually — even when tools fail
• Understand CRCs, disk layouts, and backup headers
• Validate findings and explain them clearly in court or reports
• Get CTF-ready with practical walkthroughs
Based on real forensic workflows and written for hands-on professionals, this guide helps you move from surface-level analysis to deep technical insight. Ideal for digital forensic investigators, lab analysts, and anyone working with modern storage.
This guide provides a practical walkthrough for forensic analysts dealing with encrypted Apple Notes in iOS 16.x. It focuses on identifying and decrypting locked notes stored in the NoteStore.sqlite database extracted from iOS backups.
You'll learn how to:
• Locate locked note entries and retrieve associated metadata from the ZICCLOUDSYNCINGOBJECT table
• Extract the password hash from the database and use Hashcat (mode 16200) to crack the passcode
• Reconstruct the AES key using CyberChef or a Python script
• Decrypt and decompress note content using AES-GCM, including protobuf parsing for clean output
The process relies on publicly available tools and is tailored to help investigators verify note integrity or recover protected content as part of broader mobile forensic work. This guide is especially helpful if you’re working with app data, encrypted SQLite files, or need to validate tool output manually.
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