A Comparative Study of Mobile Forensic Tools for Android Devices

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-787-8_56How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Android forensics; logical acquisition; physical acquisition; forensic investigation; Mobile Forensics; Mobile Forensics Tools

Abstract

At present, smart phones are the most useful devices used in every dimension of life, such that a significant part of critical digital data associated with forensic investigations is stored in these devices now. The open-source and commercial tools were compared in the context of their effectiveness in using methods such as Android Debug Bridge (ADB), Linux Data Duplicator, Autopsy, Belkasoft X, and Magnet Axiom for extracting data from Android devices. The study mainly examines the effectiveness of these tool uses in analyzing forensic image files on mobile devices operating under Android 12. As mobile devices become increasingly sophisticated and possess several applications, it is imperative that the methodology and tools developed are specialized and targeted at extracting and analyzing data from such devices. The study evaluates the different strengths and weaknesses of the tools used in recovering a wide range of digital artefacts, including audio files, messages, application data, and browsing histories. More importantly, by scrutinizing the performance of tools in use today, this research aims to make meaningful contributions toward developing a knowledge base regarding their capabilities and limitations as mobile forensics become a considerable part of cyber security and the criminal justice system. This paper will also elaborate on the increasing importance of mobile forensics in combating the growing tide of cybercrime and ensuring that the integrity of digital evidence stands up in court. There are NIST guidelines adopted in the study. As per the analysis, the Magnet Axiom and Autopsy have retrieved the most artefacts, but the Autopsy is slower.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, 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 changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Prince Kumar
AU  - Ekbal Rashid
AU  - Ritushree Narayan
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/07/17
TI  - A Comparative Study of Mobile Forensic Tools for Android Devices
BT  - Proceedings of the Recent Advances in Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Development (RAISD 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 749
EP  - 760
SN  - 1951-6851
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-787-8_56
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-787-8_56
ID  - Kumar2025
ER  -