Any Way To Open EDB Files Outside Exchange For Forensic Search ?
With the growing number of cybercrimes in the recent past. The IT staff of enterprises deploying Exchange servers is highly concerned regarding the security of their server. But once anyone commits a crime, then the only option to get hold of the culprit is by seeking help from forensic investigators. One of the crucial and primary steps in the whole process is getting access to Exchange Server, through which the crime has been committed. The best way to extract maximum evidence is by examining the mounted EDB mailboxes in the Live Exchange Server environment. But getting access to and opening EDB files in Exchange Server, at times proves to be more challenging than the whole investigation process itself. Owing to the reluctance of the organization to let the forensic investigators peek into the Exchange environment, the examiners choose to open EDB files outside the Exchange server.
Barriers To Analyzing Mounted EDB Files
The disinclination of Exchange server administrators (if at a suspect end) is the biggest barrier in the path of effective analysis of mounted EDB files. Also, other issues that an Exchange forensic investigator may face whilst performing the investigation on mounted EDB files are:
- Email Evidence Spoliation
In cases when a particular crime has been instigated via the Exchange server. The foremost necessity is to get the exact status of the server database. Conducting forensic analysis on the Live Exchange server increases the risk of tampering with crime evidence. Any tampering with the database may lead to email evidence spoliation from the end of current Exchange server users. This fiddling of the database, in most cases, is done deliberately to wipe out the crucial artefacts. Therefore, the forensic investigators prefer searching artefacts in EDB files that are in a dismounted state.
- No Facility To Search Inside EDB Files
Additionally, accessing mounted EDB files does not enable the users to search for particular evidence in the mailboxes. To be precise, the forensic investigation requires the pieces of evidence to collect in the least possible time. Therefore, search options help narrow down the investigation process up to the required data. But this facility, unfortunately, does not feature whilst analyzing EDB files in a mounted state.
Advantages Of Accessing EDB Files In Dismounted State
The foremost advantage, if you open EDB files outside Exchange, is the elimination of the email evidence spoliation factor. Once an investigator gets hold of the EDB file, there is no room for any tampering with evidence. This can happen if and only if the EDB files dismounts as soon as the crime has been reported. A complete analysis of the file can be carried out without worrying about the changes that could have been made otherwise in the mounted state. Therefore, accessing EDB files in a dismounted state ensures that the evidence collected is true to the best knowledge of the investigators and is not hampered.
In order to enable the forensic investigators to possess evidence at an optimum level and in the least duration of time. We have modeled a solution that will assist in doing the same. Exchange EDB Viewer is the result of our consideration of the above issues and has been designed on the grounds of the experiences of our experts. The tool is the most optimized solution to carry out Exchange Database Forensics.
Search Within Dismounted EDB Files With Exchange EDB Viewer
Exchange EDB Viewer is one of the most prominent and exemplary tools developed to enhance the complete investigation process of dismounted EDB files. The tool with its search option pegs down the database to a specific area of interest of the forensic examiners. It is a perfect solution to open EDB files outside the Exchange server environment.
NOTE: – The search feature is available with the full version of the tool. To avail of the full version, please click here.
The Search option enables one to search for emails containing a particular keyword. This not only facilitates focusing on concerning emails but also saves time.
The software also offers a bunch of different Views in which a user can view the emails of EDB files. The different views enable the forensic experts to carefully examine each and every artefact from emails of dismounted EDB files.
Exchange EDB Viewer assists the examiners to recover the mailboxes of EDB files that have been corrupted deliberately or by accident. The advanced scan enables to access data from an EDB file, even if the state of corruption is very high.
Conclusion
With the plethora of features, Exchange EDB Viewer is one of the best tools that can be deployed for efficient examining and forensic investigation of EDB files in a dismounted state. The search option is one of the most corking options. As the application offers 0 access to EDB files that are dismounted from the Exchange Server.
