Physical extraction overview

In digital forensics, a physical extraction is an exact bit-for-bit image of the electronic media, and this definition remains true for mobile devices too. In traditional computer forensics, this typically involves removing the evidence drive from the suspect's computer and imaging it via a write blocker without ever booting the drive, resulting in an image file containing an exact copy of the suspect's drive. The output is frequently referred to as a raw image, or simply a bin (binary) file. Physical extractions differ from logical, in that, they are an exact copy of the device's memory, and include unallocated space, file slack, volume slack, and so on.

In mobile forensics, the result is the same; an exact bit-for-bit image of the device, but the methods are somewhat different. For example, removing the flash memory from the device to image can be both time-consuming and expensive, and requires a lot of specialized knowledge (though it can...