Enhancing Law Enforcement Investigations Through TraceX Innovative Approach

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-768-2_14How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Forensics; Metadata viewer; Integrity Detection; Log Analyzer; Law

Abstract

Modern investigations heavily depend on digital forensics since investigators need to analyze metadata along with file integrity and hidden content in their work. The implementation of XFS and Btrfs file systems alongside journaling and copy-on-write features creates difficulties for the recovery and analysis of data. Traditional tools mainly support data retrieval. Partially recovered deleted files are not necessary because evidence validation and timeline reconstruction become possible through metadata analysis of timestamps along with device information and file origins. Secure evidence stands as intact because hash values function to verify file integrity. It is vital to detect steganographic messages that embed hidden content into digital files because they hide additional information. The Digital Forensic Tool TraceX demonstrates a major breakthrough in forensic investigations because it provides a complete set of features designed for contemporary law enforcement work. The tool functions to retrieve metadata from multiple file formats as well as find hidden content and steganography items and evaluate file changes while analyzing log entries. TraceX implements anomaly detection algorithms which guards the investigative data from integrity problems across the entire investigation period. The innovative “de-forensic” function provides a secure method for metadata removal to address privacy-related issues. This paper reveals the tool’s operational elements and its practical applications which show promise to improve digital forensic investigation efficiency by preserving top levels of precision and reliability.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this license to share adapted material derived from this chapter or parts of it.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Nakul Sharma
AU  - Yasir Afaq
AU  - Vipin
AU  - Sumit Minhas
AU  - Karanjit Singh
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/07
TI  - Enhancing Law Enforcement Investigations Through TraceX Innovative Approach
BT  - Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Recent Advances in Computing Sciences (RACS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 129
EP  - 137
SN  - 1951-6851
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-768-2_14
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-768-2_14
ID  - Sharma2026
ER  -