MacPorts - Open-source community initiative to design an easy-to-use system for compiling, installing, and upgrading either command-line, X11 or Aqua based open-source software on the Mac OS X operating system. MacUpdate Desktop - Simplifies finding, buying and installing apps for your Mac. Mac App Download Sites. Mac OS X had a Classic Mode so users could run software designed for the previous operating system. 512pixels.net Apple knew it, and moved quickly to rectify the situation. Bold new experience. Unparalleled power. Legendary ease of use.
Introduction
RELATED: 8 Mac System Features You Can Access in Recovery Mode. Your Mac's Recovery Mode is a treasure trove of useful tools, and it's the easiest way to wipe your computer and start from scratch. Shut down your Mac, turn it on while holding down Command+R. Your Mac will boot into the recovery partition.
A computer's Operating System (OS) is the collection of software that interfaces with computer hardware and controls the functioning of its pieces, such as the hard disk, processor, memory, and many other components. Forensic investigation on an OS can be performed because it is responsible for file management, memory management, logging, user management, and many other relevant details.
The forensic examiner must understand OSs, file systems, and numerous tools required to perform a thorough forensic examination of the suspected machine. Modern OSs track a good deal of information that could become artifacts of evidentiary value on the eve of forensic examination.
What is Operating System Forensics?
Definition: Operating System Forensics is the process of retrieving useful information from the Operating System (OS) of the computer or mobile device in question. The aim of collecting this information is to acquire empirical evidence against the perpetrator.
Overview: The understanding of an OS and its file system is necessary to recover data for computer investigations. The file system provides an operating system with a roadmap to data on the hard disk. The file system also identifies how hard drive stores data. There are many file systems introduced for different operating systems, such as FAT, exFAT, and NTFS for Windows Operating Systems (OSs), and Ext2fs, or Ext3fs for Linux OSs. Data and file recovery techniques for these file systems include data carving, slack space, and data hiding. Another important aspect of OS forensics is memory forensics, which incorporates virtual memory, Windows memory, Linux memory, Mac OS memory, memory extraction, and swap spaces. OS forensics also involves web browsing artifacts, such as messaging and email artifacts. Some indispensable aspects of OS forensics are discussed in subsequent sections.
What are the types of Operating Systems?
The most popular types of Operating Systems are Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, and Android.
Windows
Windows is a widely used OS designed by Microsoft. The file systems used by Windows include FAT, exFAT, NTFS, and ReFS. Investigators can search out evidence by analyzing the following important locations of the Windows:
- Recycle Bin: This holds files that have been discarded by the user. When a user deletes files, a copy of them is stored in recycle bin. This process is called 'Soft Deletion.' Recovering files from recycle bin can be a good source of evidence.
- Registry: Windows Registry holds a database of values and keys that give useful pieces of information to forensic analysts. For example, see the table below that provides registry keys and associated files that encompasses user activities on the system.
- Thumbs.db Files: These have images' thumbnails that can provide relevant information.
- Browser History: Every Web Browser generates history files that contain significant information. Microsoft Windows Explorer is the default web browser for Windows OSs. However, some other supported browsers are Opera, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Apple Safari.
- Print Spooling: This process occurs when a computer prints files in a Windows environment. When a user sends a print command from a computer to the printer, the print spooling process creates a 'print job' to some files that remain in the queue unless the print operation is completed successfully. Moreover, the printer configuration is required to be set in either EMF mode or RAW mode. In a RAW mode, the print job merely provides a straight graphic dump of itself, whereas with an EMF mode, the graphics are converted into the EMF image format (Microsoft Enhanced Metafile). These EMF files can be indispensable and can provide an empirical evidence for forensic purposes. The path to EMF files is:For Windows NT and 2000: Winntsystem32spoolprintersFor Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008/7/8/10: Windowssystem32spoolprintersOS forensic tools can automatically detect the path; there is no need to define it manually.
A Real-World Scenario involving Print Job Artifacts
A love triangle of three Russian students led to a high-profile murder of one of them. A female defendant stalked her former lover for a couple of months in order to kill his new girlfriend. Once a day, she found the right moment and drove to her boyfriend's apartment where his new girlfriend was alone. She murdered the girl and tried not to leave any evidence behind to assist the investigation process. However, she used used her computer extensively in the plotting of the crime, a fact that later provided strong material evidence during the entire process of her trail. For example, she made three printouts for directions from her home to her boyfriend's apartment.
The forensic examiners took her computer into custody and recovered the spool files (or EME files) from her computer. Among one of the three pages within spool files provide substantial evidence against her (defendant). The footer at the bottom of the page incorporates the defendant's address and her former lover's address, including the date and time when the print job was performed. This evidence later proved to be a final nail in her coffin.
Linux
Linux is an open source, Unix-like, and elegantly designed operating system that is compatible with personal computers, supercomputers, servers, mobile devices, netbooks, and laptops. Unlike other OSs, Linux holds many file systems of the ext family, including ext2, ext3, and ext4. Linux can provide an empirical evidence if the Linux-embedded machine is recovered from a crime scene. In this case, forensic investigators should analyze the following folders and directories.
Linux
Linux is an open source, Unix-like, and elegantly designed operating system that is compatible with personal computers, supercomputers, servers, mobile devices, netbooks, and laptops. Unlike other OSs, Linux holds many file systems of the ext family, including ext2, ext3, and ext4. Linux can provide an empirical evidence if the Linux-embedded machine is recovered from a crime scene. In this case, forensic investigators should analyze the following folders and directories.
/etc [%SystemRoot%/System32/config]
This contains system configurations directory that holds separate configuration files for each application.
/var/log
This directory contains application logs and security logs. They are kept for 4-5 weeks.
/home/$USER
This directory holds user data and configuration information.
/etc/passwd
This directory has user account information.
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is the UNIX-based operating system that contains a Mach 3 microkernel and a FreeBSD-based subsystem. Its user interface is Apple-like, whereas the underlying architecture is UNIX-like.
Mac OS X offers a novel technique to create a forensic duplicate. To do so, the perpetrator's computer should be placed into a 'Target Disk Mode.' Using this mode, the forensic examiner creates a forensic duplicate of perpetrator's hard disk with the help of a Firewire cable connection between the two PCs.
iOS
Apple iOS is the UNIX-based operating system first released in 2007. It is a universal OS for all of Apple's mobile devices, such as iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. An iOS embedded device retrieved from a crime scene can be a rich source of empirical evidence.
Android
Android is a Google's open-source platform designed for mobile devices. It is widely used as the mobile operating system in the handsets industry. The Android operating system runs on a Linux-based kernel which supports core functions, such as power management, network infrastructure, and device drivers. Android's Software Development Kit (SDK) contains a very significant tool for generic and forensic purposes, namely Android Debug Bridge (ADB). ADB employs a USB connection between a computer and a mobile device.
What are the Examination Steps in Operating System Forensics?
There are five basic steps necessary for the study of Operating System forensics. These five steps are listed below:
- Policies and Procedure Development
- Evidence Assessment
- Evidence Acquisition
- Evidence Examination
- Documenting and Reporting
Data Acquisition Methods for Operating System Forensics
There are four Data Acquisition methods for Operating System forensics that can be performed on both Static Acquisition and Live Acquisition. These methods are:
Disk-to-image file: A forensic examiner can make a one or more than one copy of a drive under the operating system in question. The tools used for these methods are iLookIX, X-Ways, FTK, EnCase, or ProDiscover.
Disk-to-disk copy: This works best when the disk-to-image method is not possible. Tools for this approach include SnapCopy, EnCase, or SafeBack.
Disk-to-data file: This method creates a disk-to-data or disk-to-disk file.
The Sparse copy of a file: This is a preferable method if time is limited and the disk has a large volume of data storage.
For both Linux and Windows Operating Systems, write-blocking utilities with Graphical User Interface (GUI) tools must be used in to gain access to modify the files. A Linux Live CD offers many helpful tools for digital forensics acquisition.
Data Analysis for Operating System Forensics
Forensic examiners perform data analysis to examine artifacts left by perpetrators, hackers, viruses, and spyware. They scan deleted entries, swap or page files, spool files, and RAM during this process. These collected artifacts can provide a wealth of information with regard to how malicious actors tried to cover their tracks and what they were doing to a system. For example, recall the above love triangle of Russian students. The female defendant's print artifacts helped the forensic examiners to prove her culpability in the murder.
What Tools Are Most Useful When Conducting Operating System Forensics?
Many tools can be used to perform data analysis on different Operating Systems. The most common tools are described below.
Cuckoo Sandbox
This tool is mainly designed to perform analysis on malware. Cuckoo Sandbox takes snapshots of virtual machines so that the investigator can compare the state of the system before and after the attack of malware. Since malware mostly attacks Windows OS, Windows virtual machines are used for this purpose. Figure 1 demonstrates malware's behavior on a network.
Forensic Toolkit for Linux
Forensic specialists use a forensic toolkit to collect evidence from a Linux Operating System. The toolkit comprises many tools such as Dmesg, Insmod, NetstatArproute, Hunter.O, DateCat, P-cat, and NC.
Table 1 shows the number of commands that the investigators can use to collect information from the compromised system embedded with Linux Operating System.
Helix
Helix is the distributor of the Knoppix Live Linux CD. It provides access to a Linux kernel, hardware detections, and many other applications.
Helix CD also offers some tools for Windows Forensics, such as:
- Asterisk Logger
- Registry Viewer
- Screen Capture
- File Recovery
- Rootkit Revealer
- MD5 Generator
- Command Shell
- Security Reports
- IE Cookies Viewer
- Mozilla Cookies Viewer
Figure 2 shows a screenshot from Helix.
X-Ways Forensics
X-Ways Forensics offers a forensics work environment with some remarkable features, such as:
- Disk imaging and cloning, including under Disk Operating System (DOS)
- Compatible with UDF, CDFS, ext2, ext3, NTFS, and FAT
- Views and dumps the virtual memory of running processes and physical RAM
- Gathers inter-partition space, free space, and slack space
- Mass hash calculations for files
- Ensures data authenticity with write protection feature
- Automated files, signature check, and much more
Figure 3 shows the interface of an X-Ways Forensics.
Computer Forensics Boot Camp Courses
Did you find this article helpful? Are you an aspiring Certified Computer Forensics Examiner (CCFE) candidate, in the market for a computer forensics training class? InfoSec Institute offers a uniquely designed Authorized Computer Forensics Boot Camp Course for the students of the CCFE examination. You can join this course to get a professional CCFE certification.
InfoSec Resources also offers thousands of articles on a variety of security topics
The fourteenth significant arrival of macOS and Apple Inc's is the macOS High Sierra which has a variant 10.13. The framework was working for Macintosh PCs by the work area. macOS Sierra was declared at a mega event named WWDC which was scheduled on June 5, 2017. On 25, 2017 the preceding being discharged, and on September 24, 2018, its successor macOS Mojave was discharged.
The name 'High Sierra' officially comes from the area of high Sierra which is located in California. Other software versions of macOS like Snow Leopard, El Capitan, and Mountain Lion are also from California. These names are additionally equivalent to its status as a revision of its introduction. The software is completely focused on bringing up enhancements through introducing updates instead of focusing on only the client spotlight. Photos and safari are remarkable changes among all the applications.
Tutorials: How to Clean Install Mac OS using a USB drive on Mac
License
Official Installer
File Size
5.0GB / 4.85GB
Language
English
Developer
Apple Inc.
Download: Mac OS Sierra 10.12 ISO and DMG Image
Mac OS High Sierra 10.13 ISO or DMG
Download only the stub installer means web installer is the main reason that only users may be downloading from the app store. The stub installer is mainly little in size. After running the stub installer, the real operating system will begin being introduced.
This article is focused more on the process part of downloading macOS High Sierra 10 on ISO River platform. With the article, the users can easily understand the bootable USB process to install macOS High Sierra 10.13 full installer. Moreover, this is encouraging a new introduction and an updated side of the macOS software.
Apple security updates: it does not untapped, examine affirm security issues until an examination has stopped only for the client insurance where fixes or discharges are accessible. Apple security discharge page can record the discharge pieces of evidence. Its users may know the more data they must have to see the Apple product's security page. Users can interchange with Apple utilizing the Apple product security PGP key.
Mac Os Operating System History
About Macintosh OS Server 1.0
Macintosh OS Server 1.0- 1.2v3 based on Rhapsody which is half and half of OPENSTEP from NeXT Computer and Mac OS 8.5.1. The GUI looks like the blend of MAC OS 8's Platinum appearance with OPENSTEP's NeXT based interface. This Blue box is for running inheritance MAC OS based applications which have a different window. There was a discussion of the ‘straightforward blue box'. MAC OS X Server 1.0- 1.2v3 are Incorporated with the following:
- Apple File Service.
- Macintosh Manager.
- Quick Time Streaming Server.
- Web objects.
- NeetBoot.
To use these servers it cannot be used up the FireWire gadgets. To copy a quote or image for video copy is very easy from one device to another device operating system. Users must be copied and pasted between the devices with a universal clipboard. Users must access their file on the Mac from the iPhone with iCloud Desktop and documents. Users must save all the files on the desktop or share them on iCloud. Users may keep the same file on their desktop also and documents folder on another Mac. Users may easily optimize their Mac by optimizing, storing, and freeing up space.
Users may rediscover the meaning of full moments of the photos in their gallery. They also enjoy memorable moments. Users may display their images using face recognition technology for the same group photo slideshow together. Users may search their photo with the keyboard like a beach dog or concert. For this user may thank for the smart search. Users may enjoy the convenience and security of the Apple pay when the user may focus on the Apple store and they may use Apple pay easily.
Productive Features of macOS High Sierra 10.13
These are some of the new features and enhancements that can be seen in macOS High Sierra 10.13:
High-Efficiency Video Coding(HEVC)
Since the introduction of iOS 11, iPads and iPhones have started saving their pictures in the HEVC mode. The same model has now been added to macOS High Sierra. Thus, users can now send their photos in HEVC mode to their Mac without converting them. HEVC also does a great job of maintaining excellent picture quality.
Apple File System(APFS)
The new file system, APFS, is a fine improvement over the Hierarchical File System(HFS) Plus that was used before. By the new cloning mechanism that is available under APFS, macOS can now make copies of files on the same volume without utilizing any extra space. Snapshots can also be made now. An excellent security feature in the form of full-disk encryption has been introduced with a variety of options including single key-encryption and multi-key encryption.
The capacity for storing files has increased greatly. Checksums are used to ensure the integrity of the files' metadata. Copying large files has been made much easier under APFS.
General features of the macOS Sierra
- Siri system must be added to macOS.
- Unlocking must be watched by auto unlocking Apple.
- Apple pays the web must be paid by Apple pay.
- iCloud improvement must be used by the New Storage Optimization.
- Apple Music app overview
- F. From one Apple device copy the content including text, image, photos, and videos, and paste the same to another device.
- Sierra- iCloud space expanded from 20GB to 150 GB, so image to image capabilities and multi Windows capabilities are shown.
- h.one must have to enjoy the favorite and forgotten favorite picture from the photo gallery.
- Apple pay must be used for the security payment when shopping in Safari on the user's macOS High Sierra.
Apple security archives the vulnerability by CVE- IR when it is conceivable.
System Requirements of MacOS High Sierra 10.13 ISO/DMG File
To get macOS High Sierra 10.13 ISO in your operating system the user needs to have the below requirements which are needed to install the software.
macOS High Sierra 10.13 ISO must be run on this PC.
- MacBook: It must be late 2008 or fresher.
- MacBook Air: It must be also late 2008 or freshers
- MacBook Pro: It must be mid-2007 or freshers
- Macintosh Mini: It must be of 2009 or freshers
- iMac: It should be 2007 or freshers.
- Macintosh Pro: It should be early 2008 or the fresher
- Xserve: It should be in early 2009.
Pcs are mostly accompanying models which were decorated with the 1 GB RAM. This is the standard choice on the base model when they were delivered at the initial stage. macOS High Sierra 10.13 ISO can run possibly by them. As they possess only 2GB of RAM.
- iMac: It should be 2007 or freshers.
- iMac: It should be of early 2008.
- Macintosh Mini: It should be of Early 2009.
There may be an Airdrop between the Mac PCs and iOS gadget's new manual API.
Spaceship Operating System Mac Os 10
- iMac: Which is mainly late 2012 or more up to date.
- MacBook: It should be of early 2015 or more up to date.
- MacBook Air: It should be mid-2012 or more up to date.
- MacBook Pro: It should be mid-2012 or more up to date.
- Macintosh Mini: It should be of late 2012 or more up to date.
- Macintosh Pro: Should be of late 2013.
More about macOS High Sierra 10.13 ISO
MacOS 10.13 is renowned as the High Sierra operating system whose main focus on the continuity, iCloud, and operating system experience. The operating system X extension will be removed from Apple. Apple converts it to Mac OS. It is because of the nominal similarity to iOS, tvOS, and watchOS. Whiz kitty mac os. Siri has been merged with the opening system and users must use it in their Macs. The ability to display image to image is another new feature of Mac OS Sierra. Besides these multi Windows capabilities Which look the same the iPad Pro and Mac computers.
An auto-lock is another character of this operating system with the unlock option. This unlock option is password depending if the user has their Apple Watch in hand. The name Sierra comes from one of the world's largest mountain ranges in Spain. The principle of continuity between the internal components of the operating system and its compatibility with iOS is used in Apple in case of making the new version of macOS. Improving the iCloud system is another good character of the Mac OS High Sierra on Virtualbox.
Apple can support the 10 billion files on the user's iCloud driver. The desktop experience of the iCloud files on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Mac book will be of the same type. The new Mac operating system is able to automatically transfer the older files to iCloud so that it is unable to take up any extra space on the user's Macbook or Mac.
The Siri feature is a great feature of this system among many. Siri's system is constructed with the new features specially designed for the desktop only. Their message and music system are more enjoyable and handful. Users may enjoy their favorite features of iOS as well as be optimized for Mac. Sending messages, creating a reminder, searching the Web and many other processes are so easy for handling. Viewing of files, settings, and system information is only possible by the Siri system.
If the download of user's software fails
The macOS was released to positive reviews on its release. Many of the new small updates and features received a big thumbs up from the public as well as critics. The new file system that was introduced was offered a much more stable and effective OS. Users who enjoy using the Photos feature are in for a treat as there are new editing features that have been added that are incredibly exciting to try out. The introduction of Safari was seen as a big plus by users who loved the attention paid by the new browser to their privacy.
There were many security issues that arose with High Sierra that was a cause of concern. Users who expected this new version to be more focused on gaming and other entertainment features were disappointed as they did not get what they were looking forward to. In spite of these slight setbacks, mac OS High Sierra was an excellent attempt that helped lay the groundwork for the future of Apple's products.
To better explain, the article is provided by macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 download DMG. Besides that the macOS High Sierra comes up with advanced software named macOS High Sierra ISO for VMware & VirtualBox. There is no other reason as macOS High Sierra DMG is most loved and highly recommended by the users.
Reviews from the users
During this period new macOS were also introduced but people didn't stop selecting High Sierra as it was the best software macOS ever had. macOS High Sierra was a tremendous hit even after macOS Catalina was launched during the days. In 2020, macOS High Sierra is available on both Mac computers and Windows computers. Both the segment users can get the benefit of using the same software. After macOS High Sierra macOS Mojave was introduced but it wasn't as popular as High Sierra.
According to folks, macOS High Sierra does have better performance than traditional macOS versions. Apple is consistently showing its creativity and raising its standards by introducing new computers and laptop devices. In every update, they have been impressively consistent enough in showing innovations with new features and functional settings, formats, and more. The users can easily use, download, and install on new Macs and get the benefits of the updates. Through macOS, the users can really learn about other applications' performances and stability.
