Drone Forensic Analysis Using Open Source Tools

Abstract

Carrying capabilities of drones and their easy accessibility to the public have led to an increase in crimes committed using drones in recent years. For this reason, the need for forensic analysis of drones captured from the crime scenes and the devices used for these drones is also paramount. This paper presents the extraction and identification of important artefacts from the recorded flight data as well as the associated mobile devices using open source tools and some basic scripts developed to aid the analysis of two popular drone systems- the DJI Phantom 3 Professional and Parrot AR. Drone 2.0. Although different drones vary in their operations, this paper extends the extraction and analysis of the data from the drones and associated devices using some generic methods which are forensically sound adhering to the guidelines of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO).