Forensic Analysis of Navigation Applications on Android and iOS Platforms

With the increased evolution in technology over the past decade, there has been a gradual inclination towards utilizing advanced tools, like location-based applications which incorporate features such as constant route or traffic updates with Global Positioning System (GPS), among

others, which aid in smooth living. Such applications gain access to private information of users, among their other life hack qualities, thus producing a highly vulnerable ground for data exposure such as current location. With the increase in mobile application-based attacks, there exists a

constant threat scenario in terms of criminal activities which pose an ultimate challenge while tackling large amount of data. This research primarily focuses on the extent of user-specific data that can be obtained while forensically collecting and analysing data from Waze and HEREwego

applications on Android and iOS platforms. In order to address the lack of forensic research on the above mentioned applications, an in-depth forensic analysis is conducted in this study, utilizing Cellebrite, a professional tool to provide and verify the evidence acquired, that aid in any digital forensic investigations. On the Waze application, 12 artifacts were populated on the Android device and 17 artifacts on the iOS device, out of which 12 artifacts were recovered from the Android device (100% of the artifacts populated) and 12 artifacts from the iOS device (70.58% of the artifacts populated). Similarly on the HEREwego application, 14 artifacts were populated on the Android device and 13 artifacts on the iOS device, out of which 7 artifacts were recovered from the Android device (50% of the artifacts populated) and 7 artifacts from iOS device (53.84% of the artifacts populated).