WHAT’S NEW IN V13.5?
When searching for keywords and you are not interested in each and every search hit, but merely in a list of files that contain at least one the specified keywords, the logical search now allows you to accelerate the process with the new “one hit per file needed only” option. This saves time because it allows X-Ways Forensics to skip the remainder of a file once a hit is recorded and to continue with the next file. The resulting search hit list will be incomplete, however, it is guaranteed that it contains all the files for which there was at least one hit, and it contains each such file only once. Such a list is sufficient (and efficient!) to manually review the affected files, comment on them, copy the files off an image or pass them on to other investigators in an evidence file container etc…* Performance improved for searches with hundreds of search
terms at the same time.
* After creating a search index (unless distributed indexing
is enabled), X-Ways Forensics now automatically starts an
optional optimization step, which you can safely abort at any
time if you wish to continue using the program (i.e. for an
index search). During optimization, the various *.xfi index
component files will be consolidated, which improves the
performance of index searches and ensures that the Export
Word List feature won’t export duplicate words. The optimization
step can also be executed separately later at any time.
* Adding files to an evidence file container with their
complete path is now optional. That means, if you select the
directory “Vacation2006” for inclusion in the container without
its complete path, then the target path will be \Vacation2006,
no matter whether it originally was \Vacation2006 or \Pictures
\Vacation2006 or \My Files\Pictures\Vacation2006. If you select
the files directly with the new option, then they will end up
directly at the root level. The new option is useful when
adding preprocessed files (e.g. relevant excerpts from free
space) from one’s own hard disk to a container, where the
complete path is irrelevant.
* Ability to conveniently select from a drop down box whether
to add the slack of selected files to an evidence file container.
* The new dialog window that allows to add files to an
evidence file container now confirms the indirect filling
method if enabled.
* Newly created container files now get the extension .ctr, so
that they can be better distinguished from conventional image
files.
* The parity delay in HP/Compaq RAID 5 assembly is now variable.
* Compatibility with certain exotic NTFS volumes. (still testing)
* When imaging media, a log about the operation is now created
as a text file and automatically opened after completion so
that it can be viewed and printed (forensic licenses only).
Warnings about bad sectors are included in that log file.
(since v13.4 SR-1/2)
* The gallery did not work correctly for pictures in evidence
file containers in a recursive view in the global case root
window. This was fixed. (since v13.4 SR-1)
* Error fixed that in v13.2 through v13.4 under certain
circumstances caused the logical search not to turn up any
search results at all. (since v13.4 SR-2)
* Error fixed that when deleting a report table may have caused
X-Ways Forensics to lose unrelated report table associations.
(since v13.4 SR-2)
* Error fixed that occurred when renaming hash sets in the
internal database with v13.4 and v13.4 SR-1. (since v13.4 SR-2)
* Some text strings in Windows registry files were previously
truncated at null characters. This was improved. (since v13.4
SR-5)
* Several other minor improvements and fixes.
* An evaluation version of X-Ways Forensics is now pre-installed
on TreCorder© portable forensic PCs built by mh Service GmbH.
This new device promises maximum speed for cloning/imaging hard
disks (3 simultaneously): http://www.x-ways.net/TreCorder-eng.pdf
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*** The next version of X-Ways Forensics is planned to support
E-MAIL in that it can list individual e-mail messages and e-mail
attachments found in a variety of e-mail archive formats, show
search hits in individual e-mail messages, filter attachments
based on file type, include all in recursive views, etc. ***
