Anti-Forensics Field Manual

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====== Memory Acquisition Checklist ======

===== Definition =====
Memory Acquisition Checklist is a field checklist for keeping forensic work disciplined, reviewable, and boring in the places where boring is a professional virtue.
In a forensic report, memory acquisition checklist should be treated as a source of evidence and uncertainty, not as a shortcut to intent. The useful question is what the record supports, what it does not support, and what another source says when asked the same question.

===== Background =====
Checklists do not make analysts smarter. They make preventable mistakes less comfortable. A good checklist keeps the report from treating a fragment like a confession.
Good analysis keeps the artifact in its lane: useful, limited, and not allowed to perform intent for the room. A checklist is where overconfidence goes to lose weight.

===== Technical Description =====
The checklist should preserve source evidence, document conditions, capture tool versions, identify observed facts, test alternatives, and separate interpretation from the record.
The analyst should identify which fields are observed directly, which are parsed, and which are inferred from nearby records.

===== Forensic Relevance =====
  * **Source preservation:** Memory Acquisition Checklist helps make sure the evidence, notes, tool output, and transfer history remain reviewable.
  * **Review discipline:** It forces the analyst to separate what was observed from what was inferred before the report hardens around a weak claim.
  * **Handoff quality:** It gives another examiner, responder, attorney, or reviewer enough context to understand what happened without reconstructing the case from ashes.
  * **Confidence control:** It keeps confidence tied to corroboration, not to how tired everyone was when the finding sounded convenient.
  * **Reporting decisions:** It helps decide whether memory acquisition checklist supports release, escalation, rework, or a narrower conclusion.

===== Evidence Sources =====
^ Evidence source ^ What it may show ^ Reliability limits ^ What it cannot prove alone ^
| Memory image | May show processes, sockets, injected regions, handles, and volatile keys. | Collection timing and acquisition quality define what survives. | Does not show what was never resident. |
| Process and module lists | May support execution and loaded-code context. | Malware can hide or corrupt views. | Do not prove user intent. |
| Network sockets | May show live communication context. | Connections can close quickly and attribution needs process support. | Do not prove content or motive. |
| Endpoint telemetry | May corroborate live response observations. | May be filtered, delayed, or absent. | Does not replace source evidence. |

===== Interpretation Limits =====
The main limit of memory acquisition checklist is that it can confirm process discipline, not truth by itself.
A completed checklist does not mean the evidence supports the conclusion. It means the reviewer has a clearer path to test whether it does.
Weak source notes, missing hashes, incomplete tool logs, and unresolved time handling should remain visible instead of being hidden behind a tidy review status.
A checklist is where overconfidence goes to lose weight.

===== Common Misinterpretations =====
  * Ignoring unresolved assumptions because the deadline is breathing on the report.
  * Letting a checklist hide weak reasoning instead of exposing it.
  * Treating memory acquisition checklist as proof that a specific user acted, when the artifact only supports system or account context.
  * Treating a timestamp as exact truth without checking timezone, clock drift, and source semantics.
  * Ignoring benign explanations because the suspicious explanation is easier to write.

===== Example Scenario =====
An examiner finds memory image related to memory acquisition checklist during a triage review.
The finding may support activity in the relevant time window, but it does not prove who caused it or why.
The analyst preserves the source, exports the relevant records, checks process and module lists, and documents what remains unresolved.

===== Analysis Workflow =====
  - Define the decision Memory Acquisition Checklist is supposed to support.
  - Gather the evidence inventory, collection notes, tool logs, hashes, and current report language.
  - Confirm that source evidence and working copies are clearly identified.
  - Check time handling, timezone notes, parser versions, and unresolved collection limits.
  - Compare each conclusion with the artifacts cited to support it.
  - Mark unsupported claims for rework instead of letting them survive as confident decoration.
  - Record open questions, reviewer comments, and follow-up evidence requests.
  - Update the report so facts, inferences, and limitations are separated cleanly.

===== Reporting Guidance =====
Reporting around memory acquisition checklist should show what was reviewed, what was unresolved, and which conclusions were narrowed or changed because of the checklist.
A checklist should never be used as a rubber stamp. If the evidence does not support the claim, the checkbox should make that uncomfortable.
Report-ready wording:
  * The review used memory acquisition checklist to confirm source evidence, tool output, time handling, alternative explanations, and unresolved limitations.
  * The available materials support the stated finding only within the collection scope described in the report.
  * Items not independently corroborated are identified as limitations rather than conclusions.

===== Confidence and Reliability =====
^ Confidence level ^ What it looks like for this topic ^ How to report it ^
| Low | Memory image exists, but collection scope, time source, or surrounding context is limited. | State the observation and keep interpretation narrow. |
| Moderate | Memory image aligns with Process and module lists, but attribution or intent remains unresolved. | Say the artifacts support the finding, not that they prove it. |
| High | Multiple independent sources agree on sequence, source system, account context, and collection conditions. | Use stronger language, but still separate observed facts from inference. |

===== Related Concepts =====
  * [[wiki:forensic_checklists:anti_forensics_review_checklist|Anti-Forensics Review Checklist]] - Useful when checking whether another artifact supports the same interpretation.
  * [[wiki:forensic_checklists:cloud_evidence_checklist|Cloud Evidence Checklist]] - Useful when checking whether another artifact supports the same interpretation.
  * [[wiki:forensic_checklists:evidence_collection_checklist|Evidence Collection Checklist]] - Often appears nearby in reviews of the same system or behavior.
  * [[wiki:forensic_checklists:first_response_checklist|First Response Checklist]] - Helps keep the finding grounded in a wider evidence pattern.
  * [[wiki:forensic_checklists:legal_handoff_checklist|Legal Handoff Checklist]] - Helps keep the finding grounded in a wider evidence pattern.
  * [[wiki:forensic_checklists:linux_triage_checklist|Linux Triage Checklist]] - Often appears nearby in reviews of the same system or behavior.

===== Tools =====
  * [[https://www.autopsy.com/|Autopsy]] - Case review, file-system browsing, timelines, term search, and recovered artifact review.
  * [[https://www.sleuthkit.org/sleuthkit/|The Sleuth Kit]] - Command-line file-system analysis and evidence inspection.
  * [[https://www.exterro.com/ftk-product-downloads|FTK Imager]] - Forensic imaging, preview, and export workflows.
  * [[https://www.magnetforensics.com/products/magnet-axiom/|Magnet AXIOM]] - Commercial forensic suite for computer, mobile, and cloud evidence review.
  * [[https://www.sans.org/tools/kape|KAPE]] - Targeted artifact collection and processing.
  * [[https://docs.velociraptor.app/|Velociraptor]] - Endpoint collection, hunting, and artifact triage.
  * [[https://guymager.sourceforge.io/|Guymager]] - Linux forensic imaging with hashing and acquisition logs.
  * [[https://sourceforge.net/projects/dc3dd/|dc3dd]] - Disk imaging and hashing utility.
  * [[https://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/|GNU ddrescue]] - Imaging damaged media while preserving recovery logs.
  * [[https://arsenalrecon.com/products/arsenal-image-mounter|Arsenal Image Mounter]] - Mount forensic images for controlled review.
  * [[https://belkasoft.com/x|Belkasoft X]] - Commercial forensic suite for computers, mobile devices, and cloud artifacts.
  * [[https://github.com/log2timeline/dfdatetime|dfDateTime]] - Timestamp conversion and interpretation support.
  * [[https://gchq.github.io/CyberChef/|CyberChef]] - Timestamp conversion, decoding, and quick data transformations.
  * [[https://jqlang.org/|jq]] - JSON parsing for logs, exports, and cloud evidence.
  * [[wiki:tools:start|Forensic Tools]] - Full tool directory for the wiki.

===== Limitations of Tools =====
Tools parse, surface, and organize evidence. They do not create conclusions.
Parser output can be affected by version differences, unsupported formats, corrupted records, timezone handling, partial collection, and storage behavior outside the tool's view.
When a tool produces a strong-looking result, validate it against another tool or source where the stakes justify it. A parser can recover a fragment; it cannot tell you whether the fragment deserves a paragraph in the report.

===== References and Further Reading =====
  * [[https://csrc.nist.gov/publications/detail/sp/800-86/final|NIST SP 800-86]] - Guide to integrating forensic techniques into incident response.
  * [[https://www.nist.gov/itl/ssd/software-quality-group/computer-forensics-tool-testing-program-cftt|NIST CFTT]] - Computer Forensics Tool Testing program.
  * [[https://www.forensicfocus.com/articles/what-is-digital-forensics/|Forensic Focus: What is digital forensics?]] - Practitioner-facing overview.

===== See Also =====
  * [[wiki:forensic_checklists:start|Forensic Checklists]]
  * [[wiki:forensic_checklists:anti_forensics_review_checklist|Anti-Forensics Review Checklist]]
  * [[wiki:forensic_checklists:cloud_evidence_checklist|Cloud Evidence Checklist]]
  * [[wiki:forensic_checklists:evidence_collection_checklist|Evidence Collection Checklist]]
  * [[wiki:forensic_checklists:first_response_checklist|First Response Checklist]]
  * [[wiki:forensic_checklists:legal_handoff_checklist|Legal Handoff Checklist]]
  * [[wiki:forensic_checklists:linux_triage_checklist|Linux Triage Checklist]]
  * [[wiki:forensic_checklists:macos_triage_checklist|macOS Triage Checklist]]
  * [[wiki:forensic_checklists:malware_triage_checklist|Malware Triage Checklist]]
  * [[wiki:forensic_checklists:mobile_evidence_checklist|Mobile Evidence Checklist]]
  * [[wiki:forensic_checklists:peer_review_checklist|Peer Review Checklist]]
  * [[wiki:tools:start|Forensic Tools]]
  * [[wiki:resources:start|Project Resources]]

===== Reader Takeaway =====
Memory Acquisition Checklist is useful when it turns review into evidence discipline instead of ceremony. Use memory acquisition checklist to expose unsupported claims, unresolved limits, and missing corroboration before they harden into the report. Good checklists keep bad assumptions from climbing into the report wearing clean shoes.

===== Use Notes =====
This article is for defensive education and technical reference. It should not be treated as legal, forensic, investigative, compliance, or operational advice without qualified professional judgment.