Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Switch On, Update, Lose Evidence

Switch On, Update, Lose Evidence

The focus of this article relates to what can happen when switching on a mobile telephone and how data can change on a SIM Card. Essentially how a mobile telephone updates a SIM card relating to location data is down to how each make and model of mobile telephone has been programmed. When dealing with location data in SIM Cards it should not be assumed that every make/model updates location data immediately or within a prescribed period. Certain events trigger location update data and therefore it is important to determine on a case by case basis how a mobile telephone and its SIM card should be examined.

I have received several comments from different sources saying that they found location data was not updated when the mobile telephone was held within a shielded device or bag. This is fine, but it has been found that data can change in such environments and it is not the case that it was only a few times, but the fact that it happened at all can mean unilaterally ignoring that such an event (loss of data) might occur may mean losing vital evidence.

A best practise methodology has been outlined in the article for those that wish to follow it and the justification for using such a stated methodology.

http://www.filebucket.net/files/1579_ov3rx/Switch%20On%20Update%20Lose%20Evidence%20.pdf

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Disappearing SMS Text Messages

Disappearing SMS Text Messages

SMS (short message service) text messages are convienent way to communicate and the amount of texts sent each year runs into billions, proving that this service in the wireless world of mobile telephones is highly popular.

There are a number of classes of SMS messages, but the class of message relevant to this discussion is "Class 0 (flash message)", which can add difficulties to an examiner's investigation and evidence. Text messages that are stored and then deleted can be recovered, provided they have not been overwritten.

Flash messages though are a different beast altogether, because when sent the recipient sees the message on the handset screen without the message having been lodged at first instance in the handset inbox or SIM (ef) 7F106F42.

A simple constructed message and assignment can be:

[Flash] [Recipient Number] [Message]

The flash message once received can be deleted from the screen or made to disappear from the screen and it is possible to generate messages in such away that any content of importance may not be recoverable.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Mobile Telephone Evidence - TIPS

Mobile Telephone Evidence - TIPS

Vinny Parmar sent in a couple of handset examination tips for my webblog readers. Thanks Vinny..

1. Nokia 6280 Series 40
- Handset can be powered on without the need for a SIM card. Access granted to menu's & data areas. Call log is not available. Contact list only viewable if Contact settings memory allocation changed to Phone Memory only. All other data areas accessible

2. Samsung D600:
- Memory card can be password protected via GUI. However once card removed from handset card is no longer protected - Requires further testing to confirm on all firmware versions and other models.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Super Ghost SIM

Interesting product but which 3F002FE27F206F07 would be relevant? ... happy mobile telephone evidence hunting...



Super Ghost SIM

- NEW FEATURE! Switch between SIMs via the phone's menu!
- NEW FEATURE! Option to auto switch between SIMs every 1-99 minutes
- use the manual sim selection option if you don't want to auto switch
- allows you to use two SIM cards in one phone
- no need to cut your SIM card like with similar products
- more convenient than removing your back cover/battery every time you want to swap SIM cards
- combine business/personal lines and address books on one handset
- switch between networks easily - no more coverage problems!
- take advantages of cheaper rates from different phone companies
- saves your previous calls, received calls, time and date settings etc.
- new ultra slim design - sits inbetween your battery and back cover
- no need to replace your phone's back cover - the ghost SIMs sit inbetween your battery and standard back cover
- works with all SIMs (including 3)
- can be used to add another 200 contacts to your phone book via the second sim card (sim dependent)
- works with virtually all makes and models
- also known as dual SIMs/twin SIMs

http://www.formymobile.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=supersim

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Article on SIM Card Readers

Article on SIM Card readers

http://www.ilexjournal.com/special_features/article.asp?theid=284&themode=2C

Deleted SMS text messages

Deleted SMS text messages

GSM 11.11 (ETSI TS 100 977) is a Standard containing mandatory and optional requirements relevant to Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards. An optional service that an Operator may provide to a subscriber of its services is Short Message Service (SMS) text messaging. The requirements relating to storing sent and received SMS text messages, in the user memory area of the SIM card, are identified at GSM 11.11 cl10.5.3. When a message that is received and is subsequently deleted by the user of the SIM, the user can no longer gain access to that data. The details about a particular SMS message that has been deleted are removed from the SIM's memory table thus the mobile telephone will no longer display the SIM details of that message to the user.

Although the details of the SMS text message are no longer accessible by the user, GSM 11.11 makes it clear the physical data relating to the entire text message may still be recorded on the card. GSM 11.11 procedure for "Erasure" of text messages states:

GSM 11.11 cl 11.5.2
"Erasure: The ME will select in the SIM the message area to be erased. Depending on the MMI, the message may be read before the area is marked as "free". After performing the updating procedure with EFSMS, the memory allocated to this short message in the SIM is made available for a new incoming message. The memory of the SIM may still contain the old message until a new message is stored in this area."

Using specialist examination tools it is therefore possible to recover erased (deleted) SMS text messages from a SIM card. Where a previously deleted message has been over-written by either new data allocated to the memory area previously occupied by the deleted data or the handset automatically over-writes as a function of its operating procedure (usually over-writes with 000000's) the erased (deleted) data in the SIM are no longer recoverable. Hopefully this
information will assist if you are asked is it possible can deleted text messages be recovered, and, if not recoverable, why not?


http://www.filebucket.net/files/1596_ooy39/SMS%20Text%20Messages.pdf

Mobile Telephone Evidence

MCC AND MNC CODES

As examination of SIM Cards and Handsets is on the increase internationally, thus roaming is relevant, the list below identifies Mobile Country Codes (e.g. 234) and Mobile Network Codes (e.g. 44) for global Mobile Operators. Please note the data are subject to change.

20201 Cosmote Greece
20205 Vodafone Greece
20209 Q-Telecom Greece
20210 Telestet Greece
20404 Vodafone Netherlands
20408 KPN Netherlands
20412 O2 Netherlands
20416 T-Mobile Netherlands
20420 Orange Netherlands
20601 Proximus Belgium
20610 Mobistar Belgium
20620 Base Belgium
20801 Orange France
20810 SFR France
20820 Bouygtel Telecom France
21303 S.T.A. MobilAnd Andorra
21401 Vodafone Spain
21402 Movistar Spain
21403 Amena Spain
21404 Xfera Spain
21407 Telefonica Movistar Spain
21601 Pannon GSM Hungary
21630 Westel 900 GSM Mobile Hungary
21670 Vodafone Hungary
21803 Eronet Bosnia Herzegovina
21805 Mobi's Bosnia Herzegovina
21890 GSM BIH Bosnia Herzegovina
21901 Croatian Telecoms Cronet Croatia
21910 VIP Croatia
22001 MOBTEL Yugoslavia
22002 ProMonte GSM Yugoslavia
22003 03 Yugoslavia
22004 Monet Yugoslavia
22201 Telecom Italia Mobile TIM Italy
22210 Vodafone Italy
22288 Wind Telecomunicazioni Italy
22298 BLU Italy
22299 3 Italy
22601 MobiFon CONNEX GSM Romania
22603 Cosmorom Romania
22610 Mobil Rom DIALOG Romania
22801 Swisscom NATEL Switzerland
22802 Sunrise Switzerland
22803 Orange Switzerland
23001 T-mobile Czech Republic
23002 EuroTel Praha Czech Republic
23003 Oskar Czech Republic
23101 Orange GSM Slovak Republic
23102 EuroTel GSM Slovak Republic
23201 MobilKom Austria A1 Austria
23203 T-Mobile Austria
23205 Connect Austria One Austria
23207 Tele.ring Austria
23210 3AT Austria
23400001 Virgin United Kingdom
23410 02 United Kingdom
23415 Vodafone United Kingdom
23420 3 United Kingdom
23430 Virgin United Kigndom (others)
23430 T-Mobile United Kingdom
23433 Orange United Kingdom
23450 Jersey Telecom GSM United Kingdom
23455 Guernsey Telecoms GSM UK
23458 Manx Telecom Pronto GSM UK
23800001 Debitel Denmark
23801 Tele-Danmark Mobil Denmark
23802 Sonofon Denmark
23820 Telia Denmark Denmark
23830 Orange Denmark
24001 Telia Mobitel Sweden
24002 3 Sweden
24003 Orange Sweden
24007 Comviq GSM Sweden

24008 Vodafone Sweden
24201 Telenor Mobil Norway
24202 NetCom GSM Norway
24403 Telia Finland Finland
24405 Radiolinja Finland
24407 AT&T U.S.A.
24409 Finnet Group Finland
24412 2G Finland
24414 AMT Finland
24491 Sonera Corporation Finland
24601 Omnitel Lithuania
24602 UAB Bite GSM Lithuania
24603 Tele 2 Lithuania
24701 Latvian Mobile Tel. Latvia
24702 Tele 2 Latvia
24801 Estonian Mobile Telephone Estonia
24802 RadioLinja Eesti Estonia
24803 Tele 2 Estonia
25001 MTS Moscow Russia
25002 Megafon Russia
25005 Siberian Cellular Russia
25007 Zao Smarts Russia
25010 Don Telecom Russia
25012 New Telephone Company Russia
25013 Kuban GSM Russia
25039 Uratel Russia
25044 North Caucasian GSM Russia
25099 BeeLine Russia
25501 Ukrainian Mobile Comms Ukraine
25502 Ukrainian Radio Systems Ukraine
25503 Kyivstar GSM Ukraine
25505 Golden Telecom Ukraine
25701 Velcom
25702 MTS
25901 Voxtel Moldova
25902 Moldcell Moldova
26001 Polkomtel PLUS GSM Poland
26002 ERA GSM Poland
26003 IDEA Centertel Poland
26201 T-Mobile Germany
26202 Vodafone Germany
26203 E-Plus Mobilfunk Germany
26207 O2 Germany
26213 MobilCom Germany
26214 Quam Germany
26601 Gibraltar Telecoms Gibtel Gibraltar
26801 Vodafone Portugal
26803 Optimus Telecom. Portugal
26806 Telecom Moveis Nac. TMN Portugal
27001 P+T LUXGSM Luxembourg
27077 Millicom Tango GSM Luxembourg
27201 Vodafone Ireland
27202 O2 Ireland
27203 Meteor Ireland
27401 Iceland Telecom Siminn Iceland
27402 TAL hf Iceland
27403 Islandss Iceland
27404 Viking Iceland
27601 Albanian Mobile Comms Albania
27602 Vodafone Albania
27801 Vodafone Malta
27821 Go Mobile Malta
28001 Cyprus Telecoms Authority Cyprus
28201 Geocell Limited Georgia
28202 Magti GSM Georgia
28203 Geo 03 Georgia
28301 ArmenTel Armenia
28401 MobilTel AD Bulgaria
28405 Globul Bulgaria
28601 Turkcell Turkey
28602 TELSIM Turkey
28603 Aria Turkey
28604 Aycell Turkey

28801 FT-GSM
28802 KALL
29001 Tele Greenland Greenland
29340 Si.mobil Slovenia
29341 Si-GSM Slovenia
29370 Si VEGA 070 Slovenia
29401 MobiMak Macedonia
29402 MTS AD Macedonia
29501 Telecom
29502 Montel
29505 FL1
29577 Tango
30200001 Fido Canada
30237 Microcell Connexions Inc Canada
30272 Rogers AT&T Canada
31001 Pacific Mobile Comms Pap New Guinea
31002 APC Sprint Spectrum U.S.A.
31011 Wireless 2000 Telephone U.S.A.
31015 BellSouth Mobility DCS U.S.A.
31017 Cingular (Pacific Bell Wireless) U.S.A.
31020 T-Mobile U.S.A.
31026 Western Wireless Voicestream U.S.A.
31027 Powertel U.S.A.
31031 Aerial Communications U.S.A.
31038 AT&T U.S.A.
31077 Iowa Wireless Services U.S.A.
33805 Digicel JM
34001 Orange French West Indies
34020 BouygTel French West Indies
36801 C-Com CU
37412 TSTT
40001 Acell Telekom B.M. Azerbaijan
40002 BKcell GSM 2000 Azerbaijan
40101 K-Mobile Kazaksthan
40102 KCELL Kazaksthan
40217 B-Mobile BT
40401 Aircel Digilink Essar Cellph. India
40402 Bharti Cellular Telecom Airtel India
40403 Bharti Cellular Telecom Airtel India
40405 Hutch India
40407 TATA Cellular India
40408 Ushafon India
40410 Bharti Cellular Telecom Airtel India
40411 Hutch India
40412 Escotel Mobile Comms India
40413 Hutch India
40414 Ina Spice India
40415 Aircel Digilink Essar Cellph. India
40419 Escotel India
40420 Orange India
40421 BPL USWest Cellular India
40422 Idea India
40423 Usha Martin Tel. Command India
40424 Idea India
40426 Usha Martin Tel. Command India
40427 BPL USWest Cellular India
40430 Usha Martin Tel. Command India
40431 Bharti Cellular Telecom Airtel India
40432 Ushafone India
40434 BPL USWest Cellular India
40438 BPL USWest Cellular India
40440 INA AIRTel India
40441 RPG MAA India
40442 Srinivas Cellcom India
40443 BPL USWest Cellular India
40444 Spice India
40445 Bharti Cellular Telecom Airtel India
40446 BPL USWest Cellular India
40449 Bharti Cellular Telecom Airtel India
40451,53,54,55 BSNL Mobile India
40456 Escotel India
40457,58,59 BSNL Mobile India
40460 Aircel Digilink Essar Cellph. India

40462,64,66 BSNL Mobile India
40468 Dolphin India
40469 Dolphin India
40470 Oasis India
40471,72,73,74,75,76,77 BSNL Mobile India
40478 IDEA India
40479,80,81 BSNL Mobile India
40486 Hutch India
40490,92,93,94,95,96,97,98 Bharti Cellular
Telecom Airtel India
41001 Ufone Pakistan
41201 AWCC AF
41302 MTN Networks Dialog GSM Sri Lanka
41303 CellTel Sri Lanka
41401 MPTGSM
41501 FTML Cellis Lebanon
41503 LibanCell Lebanon
41601 J.M.T.S Fastlink Jordan
41677 MobCom Jordan
41701 SyriaTel Syria
41702 94 Syria
41709 MOBILE Syrian Telecom Est. Syria
41793 SyriaTel Syria
41801 Iraq Telecom Iraq
41902 Mobile Telecoms MTCNet Kuwait
41903 Wataniya Kuwait
42001 Ministry of PTT Al Jawal Saudi Arabia
42007 Electronics App' Est. EAE Saudi Arabia
42202 General Telecoms Oman
42401 UAE ETISALAT-G1 United Arab Emirates
42402 UAE ETISALAT-G2 United Arab Emirates
42501 Orange Israel
42502 Cellcom Israel
42505 JAWWAL Israel
42601 Batelco Bahrain
42701 QATARNET Qatar
42899 MobiCom MN
43211 TCI Iran
43214 Kish Iran
43400 Uzmacom Uzbekistan
43401 Buztel Uzbekistan
43402 Uzmacom Uzbekistan
43404 Daewoo Unitel Uzbekistan
43405 Coscom Uzbekistan
43407 UZD Uzbekistan
43603 MLT TJK
43605 TajikTel
43701 Bitel Kyrgyz Republic
44010 DoCoMo Japan
45201 Mobifone Vietnam
45202 Vinaphone Vietnam
45400 Hong Kong Telecom CSL Hong Kong
45404 Hutchison Telecom Hong Kong
45406 SmarTone Mobile Comms Hong Kong
45410 New World PCS Hong Kong
45412 Peoples Telephone Hong Kong
45416 Mandarin Com. Sunday Hong Kong
45418 Pacific Link Hong Kong
45422 P Plus Comm Hong Kong
45501 C.T.M. TELEMOVEL+ Macau
45601 Mobitel Cambodia
45602 SM Cambodia
45618 Camshin Cambodia
45701 Lao Shinawatra Telecom Lao
45702 ETLMNW Lao
45703 LatMil Lao
45708 Tango Lao
46000 China Telecom GSM China
46001 China Unicom GSM China
46002 Liaoning PPTA China
46601 Far EasTone Telecoms Taiwan
46606 TUNTEX Telecom Taiwan
46688 KG Telecom Taiwan

46692 Chunghwa Telecom Taiwan
46693 Mobitai Communications Taiwan
46697 Pacific Cellular TWNGSM Taiwan
46699 TransAsia Telecoms Taiwan
46701 Sun KP PRK
47001 Grameen Phone Bangladesh
47002 Aktel Bangladesh
47003 Sheba Telecom Bangladesh
47201 DHI Mobile MV
50202 Binariang Malaysia
50212 Maxis Malaysia
50213 Telekom Cellular TM Touch Malaysia
50216 DiGi Telecommunications Malaysia
50217 TimeCel Wireless Adam Malaysia
50219 Celcom Malaysia
50501 Telstra Mobile Comms Australia
50502 Optus Australia
50503 Vodafone Australia
50503 3 Australia
50508 OneTel Australia
51001 PT. SATelindo C Indonesia
51008 Lippo Telkomsel Indonesia
51010 TelKomSel Indonesia
51011 Pro XL Indonesia
51021 IM3 Indonesia
51501 Isla Comms Philippines
51502 Globe Telecom Philippines
51503 Smart Communications Philippines
51505 DigiTel Philippines
52001 Advanced Info Service AIS Thailand
52010 Orange Thailand
52018 DTotal Access Worldphone Thailand
52023 GSM 1800 Thailand
52099 Orange Thailand
52501 Sing. Tel. GSM 900 Singapore
52502 Sing. Tel. GSM 1800 Singapore
52503 MobileOne Asia Singapore
52504 M1-3GSM Singapore
52505 StarHub Singapore
52811 DST Communications Brunei Darussalam
53001 Vodafone New Zealand
53901 O-Call ton
54101 Smile VUT
54201 Vodafone Fiji Fiji
54601 Mobilis New Caledonia
54720 Vini French Polynesia
55001 FSM Telecom FSM
60201 MobiNil Egypt
60202 Vodafone Egypt
60301 Algerian Mobile Network Algeria
60302 Djezzy Algeria
60400 Meditel Marocco
60401 Itissalat Al-Maghrib IAM Marocco
60502 Tunisie Telecom Tunicell Tunisia
60503 Tunisiana Tunisia
60701 GamCel GMB
60702 AfriCELL GMB
60801 Sonatel ALIZE Senegal
60802 Sentel Senegal
60901 Mattel MR
61001 Matitel ML
61002 Ikatel ML
61201 Comstar Cellular Network Cote d'Ivoire
61203 Orange Cote d'Ivoire
61205 Telecel Cote d'Ivoire
61302 CelTel BF
61402 CelTel NE
61501 Togo Telecom TOGO CELL Togo
61602 TLCL-Ben BJ
61603 Benincell BJ
61604 BBcom BJ
61701 Cellplus Mobile Comms Mauritius
61710 Emtel Mauritius

61801 Lonestar Liberia
62001 ScanCom Ghana
62002 OneToch Ghana
62003 Mobitel Ghana
62120 Econet NG
62130 MTN NG
62140 Nitel NG
62201 CelTel TC
62202 Libertis TD
62401 MTN Cameroon
62402 Orange Cameroon
62501 Cabo Verde Movel Cape Verde
62601 CSTMovel STP
62701 GNQ01 GNQ
62801 Libertis GA
62802 GAB TeleCel
62803 CelTel GA
62901 CelTel CD
62910 Libertis CD
63002 CelTel RC
63004 CellCo GSM RC
63089 OASIS
63102 Unitel AGO
63301 Seychelles Cellular Services Seychelles
63310 AIRTEL Seychelles
63401 Mobile Telephone Company Sudan
63510 Rwandacell Rwanda
63601 Ethiopian Telecoms Auth. Ethiopia
63701 Barakaat SOM
63782 Telsom SOM
63902 Safaricom KE
63903 KenCell KE
64001 Tritel Tanzania
64002 Mobitel Tanzania
64003 Zantel Tanzania
64005 CelTel Tanzania
64101 Celtel Cellular Uganda
64110 MTN Uganda Uganda
64111 UTL Telecel Uganda
64201 Spacetel BI
64202 Busafa BI
64301 mCel MOZ
64501 Celtel Zambia
64601 Madacom Madagascar
64602 SMM Antaris Madagascar
64603 Sacel Madagascar
64700 Orange
64702 OMT
64710 Societe Reunionnaise SRR Reunion
64801 NET*ONE Zimbabwe
64803 Telecel Zimbabwe
64804 Econet Zimbabwe
64901 MTC Namibia
65001 Telekom Network Callpoint Malawi
65010 CelTel Malawi
65101 VCL Comms Lesotho
65102 Ezi Cel Lesothp
65201 Mascom Wireless Botswana
65202 Vista Botswana
65310 Swazi MTN SZ
65501 Vodacom South Africa
65507 Cell C South Africa
65510 MTN South Africa
71201 ICE CRI
72235 Port Hable ARG
72402,03,04 TIM Brazil
72431 Oi Brazil
732101 Comcel Columbia
73401 Infonet Venezuela
73402 Digitel Venezuela
74601 ICMS SR
74602 TeleG SR

Mobile Telephone Evidence

Code and Data go hand in hand

Examiners are familiar with the fact that from time to time found appended to SMS text messages there appears unintelligible code that cannot be read in context with the user's message itself. Such code as @@@ or /./@@ and so on may raise the notion that the SIM reader has not decoded the message correctly. On the contrary, the SIM reader is most likely to have done its job. The assignment of code being added to the data is so that the mobile telephone knows what to do with a message next time it reads it. The cause behind this is fairly straightforward. Phase 2+ handsets (GSM Release 98 onwards) adopted UCS2 (Universal Character Set 2) that allowed highlights to be added to or with data. For instance, italics or colours and so on. Most GSM SIMs' are programmed with GSM Default Alphabet and not UCS2. To corroborate finding code with data, following a SIM read, may require viewing the message through the handset.

Mobile Telephone Evidence

7F10:6F44

For those of you who have attended the TrewMTE GSM Mobile Telephone SIM forensic Card training courses will know the user content elementary file (EF LND) Last Number Dialled. We know from the GSM SIM Standard that this EF is optional, but once allocated and activated in SIM, has a number of mandatory features. The EF stores the number dialled by the user. In the words of the academic authors Redl, Weber & Oliphant "The last number dialed (EFLND) contains a list of the last numbers that were dialed using the SIM." Historically, the numbers found in EFLND have consistently shown to have been stored following selection of numbers from other EFs in the SIM and not numbers dialled on the handset keys or from a handset's phonebook. It has been noted recently that certain SonyEricsson handsets that have dialled numbers are being recorded into this particular elementary file (EFLND). I thought this info was worth passing on - to avoid or reduce confusion during examination.