Capturing RAM

When the decision is made to capture the RAM from the system, several factors need to be considered before moving forward. The most significant issue is that you will be changing the system’s state when you collect the volatile data.

The Scientific Workgroup on Digital Evidence (SWGDE) has explored the collection of volatile data and offers the following considerations:

• The application used to collect the data in memory will overwrite some memory contents.
• The larger the tool and associated files are, the more data it overwrites.
• The system may load the USB device driver into memory.
• The system may load the USB device driver into the registry.
• The application used to collect the data in memory will show up in some Most Recently Used (MRUs).

There is the potential that the collection of RAM may cause a system lockup or instability in the system. Therefore, the digital forensic investigator must know how the tool may...