Forensic analysis of popular UAV systems

Recent and sudden rise in the popularity of drones or UAVs (Unmanned Air Vehicles) can be attributed to the reduction in weight of electronic components and the relative ease by which the drones can be operated. Their potential applications range from simple leisure and recreational purposes to photography, transport, surveying, security, the list goes on. With this demand and subsequent availability, there has also been a rise in drones used in crimes. This creates a need for forensic analysis into these devices, which often use custom electronic flight systems for which appropriate forensic tools have not been developed. This paper covers the use and development of open source tools to aid forensic analyses of two popular drones - the DJI Phantom 3 Professional and AR Drone 2 with the aim of reconstructing the actions taken by these drones, identification of owners or operators, and extraction of data from associated mobile devices. While different UAV systems can vary in their operations owing to their capabilities, some generic methods will be used in analyses and extractions of the data and then results will be compared between models.

Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Emerging Security Technologies 6-8 Sept 2017. Canterbury UK.