An investigator is tasked with analyzing metadata from a suspected MAC system in a case of data theft. They have decided to parse the Spotlight database file, store.db. Which of the following tools and steps would be most effective for obtaining recently accessed file details from this MacOS system?
Running the spotlight_parser Python script on the store.db file to extract file metadata would be the most effective tool and step for obtaining recently accessed file details from a MacOS system. Spotlight is the built-in indexing tool in macOS, and the store.db file is a key database that contains the indexed metadata. Using a specialized tool like the spotlight_parser script directly targets and extracts the relevant file metadata, making it efficient for this specific task.
In digital forensic examination, the database information parsed from Spotlight retrieves details such as dates, last opened, and number of times an application or file is opened. Syntax: python spotlight_parser.py <path_to_database> <path_to_output_folder>