NSRL Unique File Corpus

NIST's National Software Reference Library makes available a Unique File Corpus of each file that it processes. The tab delimited file lists the SHA1 hash value and byte count of each file. It is available for download here.

If you're conducting electronic discovery and find unknown files and want to determine if they may contain data unique to a business's network consulting the corpus is one way to 'de-NIST' the data.

The full NSLR Reference Data Set contains far more information for each file, including the CRC32 checksum: the MD5 hash value; manufacturer, operating system, and product codes, names, and versions; language; application type; and the file name. Whereas the full set downloads as an .iso file, the Unique File Corpus downloads as a single file named, 'CorpIdMetadata.tab' in a zip file.

The tab format can be handled by MS Access. I was able to successfully import the first 1,048,576 rows into an Excel spreadsheet tonight. Take a look:

CCleaner Warning

The program CCleaner is widely relied upon to delete unwanted files (such as internet .tmp files), and can also be used to overwrite unwanted files that you want to permanently delete.

Beware that version 5.45 and later of CCleaner may be sending user data to Avast the developer of CCLeaner.. See the particle posted here.

As reported by ZDNet, CCleaner sends user data back to Avast's servers. The CCleaner claims that it does not collect personal identifiable information but only uses anonymous usage data.

Unshredding Software Is a Thing

The intrepid folks at Safe Guard in Tel Aviv, have developed Unshredder, a shredded document reconstruction system. How well does it work? I downloaded a trial version of the software tonight to find out.

The trial version doesn't allow you to test it out with actual shredded paper (a license costs $90 per month, and Litigation Support Tip of the Night is a one man, no budget operation) but it does demonstrate the process.

As the user manual makes clear, but the web site does not, the software merely renders shredded strips of paper into paper, which the user must arrange into a reconstructed page. It does not match up the shreds of paper automatically. It merely saves you the trouble of handling individual shards of shredded paper. The workflow facilitated by Unshredder clearly first requires someone to isolate shredded pieces from a single page of paper into one digital set of images to be arranged.

The user works with an original scanned page containing the 'puzzle pieces' to be fit in, and a working page in which the whole is reconstructed.

Unshredder may make a very laborious tasks somewhat easier by avoiding damage to shards as they are manipulated, and allowing them to be arranged more quickly, but it does not take the guesswork out of reassembling torn up paper.