Forensic Analysis of Smartphones: The Android Data Extractor Lite (ADEL)

Due to the ubiquitous use of smartphones, these devices become an increasingly important source of digital evidence in forensic investigations. Thus, the recovery of digital traces from smartphones often plays an essential role for the examination and clarification of the facts in a case. Although some tools already exist regarding the examination of smartphone data, there is still a strong demand to develop further methods and tools for forensic extraction and analysis of data that is stored on smartphones. In this paper we describe specifications of smartphones running Android. We further introduce a newly developed tool – called ADEL – that is able to forensically extract and analyze data from SQLite databases on Android devices. Finally, a detailed report containing the results of the examination is created by the tool. The whole process is fully automated and takes account of main forensic principles.