macos

APOLLO v1.4 - Now with 'Gather' Function from iOS/macOS and updates to iOS14 and macOS 11 modules

I’ve been working hard on a big update to improve core functionality of APOLLO to include methods to gather up the database files needed so they can be extracted from using the APOLLO modules.

New APOLLO Functions:

  • ‘gather_macos’ - Automagically finds and collects database files on macOS using modules.

    • Any directory, mounted volume, etc.

    • Ability to ignore certain directories

  • ‘gather_ios’ - Automagically finds and collects database files on jailbroken iOS devices using modules.

    • IP and Port Required

    • Ability to ignore certain directories

  • ‘extract’ - Nearly the same as before, rips through all the databases and extracts data via the SQL queries in the modules.

    • Improved CSV output

    • New JSON output within SQLite database

I’ve also updated many modules for iOS 14 and macOS 11. I’ve got more updates planned, however I still need to tweak, research, and test before I release.

You can see the new workings of the tool in my OSDFCon presentation - “Go for Launch: Getting Started with Practical APOLLO Analysis

And for pure fun(!) a bonus Halloween themed presentation with “Getting Spooky with Apollo” that I did for a Fortego F-Con Lightning Talk. 👻🎃

Part 1: Step-by-step macOS Setup for iOS Research (via @bizzybarney)

CLI…WTF

Command line interface (CLI) isn’t for everyone.  Trust me; I get it.  @iamevltwin forced me out of my comfort zone a few years ago and opened my eyes to the power of Terminal (command prompt on Mac).  Now it is pinned to the Dock on every Mac I use, but I still struggle at times and that is okay!  The internet provides plenty of support to help me along when I just can’t make something work.  I use and abuse my Notes application with random commands and ways to accomplish certain tasks in Terminal that I know I will want to recall sometime in the future.  Inevitably though, I find my way back to mac4n6.com to read an article because I am cussing at an iPhone I’m struggling to jailbreak because I forget if the port is 22 or 44.  

I recently bought a new MacBook Pro and the thing is a beast, but as soon as Apple setup was completed I started installing things to set it up for mobile testing.  I figured I would write a set of current instructions on how I setup my Mac, and do so in a way that someone unfamiliar with Terminal can follow along without issues.

DISCLAIMER.  Following these instructions worked for me and will work for you too.  As with anything else, proceed at your own risk but nothing we are doing here is dangerous for your machine if done correctly.  I tried to bold exactly the text you need to type or to highlight a key combination you need to press to grab your eye as you scan this article.

1. Terminal (CLI)

What:

We are going to use it but you don’t have to understand everything we are doing to still achieve the desired outcome.  To find Terminal, hold ‘command+space bar’ and Spotlight Search will appear on your Mac’s screen.  Type ‘terminal’ and select the application from the results.  I choose to pin it in my dock because I use it every day, you might want to do the same.

How: 

  1. Hold command key and press space bar

  2. In Spotlight search type ‘terminal’ 

  3. Select Terminal application and it will open

  4. Right click Terminal in your Dock, mouse up to Options and over to ‘Keep in Dock’ and select it.

2. Xcode

What:

Xcode is Apple’s development platform, and pieces of it are used in regular forensics work on iOS and Mac data.  This takes a while depending on your download speeds, so this might be a good place to grab a drink.  

How: 

  1. Open the App Store on your Mac and search for Xcode.  Download.

3. Homebrew

What:

I am a huge fan of craft beer, so perhaps I appreciate the naming convention here more than others.  Regardless of whether you like craft beer or are yet to learn that you love craft beer 🍻 - you need to install Homebrew to install some stuff Apple doesn’t install for you. 

How: 

  1. In a web browser, go to brew.sh  (DO NOT GO TO homebrew.sh, that is a super sketchy place and is not where you want to be)

  2. When the page opens, look directly under “Install Homebrew”, and copy the entire line: /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"

Paste that into a Terminal window and press ‘return’ key.  (If you are asked for a password, it is the user password you enter to access the machine so you need to be an admin!  Also when you type your password nothing shows up on the screen, you aren’t crazy.) 

It tells you what the script will install, and you need to press ‘return’ again to install which will take a few minutes.

4. DB Browser for SQLite

What: 

My preferred SQLite database browser for everyday database research and analysis.  As with Terminal, I keep this one in the Dock of my Mac also

How: 

  1. Simply go to sqlitebrowser.org/dl/ and download and install the appropriate version. 

OR

Homebrew Install Method: You will notice on the download page that Homebrew is listed there with a command to install the application via Homebrew.  Since we already installed Homebrew, you can take a look at how it works by using it to install DB Browser for SQLite!

If you choose to install via Homebrew:

  1. In Terminal, type the following and press ‘return’ - brew cask install db-browser-for-sqlite

5. Hex Fiend

What:

Free hex viewer, and I love it.  I drag and drop files into the application to quickly check file contents every day I’m doing research.  This one also stays in the Dock.

How

  1. Simply go to ridiculousfish.com/hexfiend and download and install.  

OR…I wonder if Homebrew can do this for me?

Homebrew Install Method: 

To check if homebrew has the ability to install a certain utility, you can just type brew search hexfiend and press return

The results tell me there is a Cask named ‘hex-fiend’ so I can install via Homebrew just like we did before.

  1. In Terminal, type the following and press ‘return’ - brew cask install hex-fiend

6. libimobiledevice

What:

We will use the “iproxy” utility, which enables TCP service access to an iDevice.  It allows us to forward ‘localhost’ to the device, thus allowing an SSH connection over USB to jailbroken devices.  If you don’t know what TCP, SSH or ‘localhost’ means - don’t quit here.  Once this is setup and your iDevice is jailbroken, you simply need to type a few things in Terminal and boom!  You’re surfing the file system of a live iDevice!

How:

  1. In Terminal, type brew search libimobiledevice

  2. The results show us ‘libimobiledevice’ is available, so type brew install libimobiledevice and press return

And with that the Mac setup is now complete!  We arranged applications in the Dock for quick access, got Xcode ready to go, setup a SQLite database browser, a hex viewer, and finally the utility we will use to communicate with our iDevice via USB.  But wait..what about my favorite <insert tool name here>?  Personal preference will drive many other installs or setup tweaks, but if you follow these instructions your Mac is ready to do iDevice testing.  

If you successfully followed the instructions above, your iOS testing progress bar is at 51% - congratulations!  Part 2 is coming soon and will visualize and simplify the jailbreak process, getting your iDevice ready for testing.  You will be setup and ready to answer your own questions about the iOS file system, how it behaves, and you can prove or disprove that hunch you have!  

Until next time, “Stay classy, forensicators.”

Socially Distant but Still Interacting! New and Improved Updates to macOS/iOS CoreDuet interactionC.db APOLLO Modules

The interactionC.db database certainly does not get as much as attention as its CoreDuet partner in crime, knowledgeC.db. However, I think it has quite a bit of investigative potential. I’ve written about it before in a prior blog, however I’d like to give it more attention here.

I spent this weekend updating the APOLLO modules to have more contextual support and better backwards compatibility with older iOS versions. This database was also introduced to the macOS side with 10.15. 

I’ve added a new query for this database for the ZKEYWORDS table. This tables appears to capture keywords that are contained in various Calendar (com.apple.mobilecal) events. It seems only select certain events as not all my calendar event has keywords in this table.

The main interactionsC.db query has many new updates including attachments and sender/recipient correlation. In general, this database is keeps track of “recent” contact interactions. As an example, I used this query on my iOS database that I copied off of my iPhone a few days ago and it shows ~28,000 entries going all the way back to January of this year, 6+ months! 

In the screenshot below is a Messages (com.apple.MobileSMS) conversation between Heather Mahalik and I. Items that are blurred are our phone numbers. The GUIDs are our Contact Person IDs, these can be correlated with information in the iOS Address Book database. Why some recipient information is blank, I’m not sure. I scrolled way back in our conversation history and the timestamps are spot on. The content of this conversation could (and should) be correlated with the Messages database (sms.db).

This data is not just for Messages and may include other application bundle IDs. Some that I’ve seen in my data include:

  • com.apple.InCallService – Phone Calls

  • com.apple.MobileSMS - Messages

  • com.apple.Preferences - Settings

  • com.apple.ScreenshotServicesService - Screenshots

  • com.apple.mobilecal - Calendar

  • com.apple.mobilemail - Mail

  • com.apple.mobilesafari - Safari

  • com.apple.mobileslideshow - Photos

Contact Interactions & Attachments

For another example, let’s take a look at some interactions for the Photos app (com.apple.mobileslideshow). Not every interaction will have attachments associated with them. The screenshot below contains some AirDrop activity from this device. Some images were AirDropped from the Photos app itself, while one image was AirDropped from within the Messages application as shown in the Target Bundle ID column. It also shows the contact information to whom it was sent - helpful! 

Some of these attachments have a type associates with them in the UTI column (HEIC/PNG), the other has an associated attachment ID, show in hex (0x DCCB49C2FC74461EAD90DAB0C537DBF7). This is a hex representation of the UUID for the image. It seems not every image will have this attachment ID.

This image UUID can be searched for in the Photos database, as shown below to determine which image exactly was AirDropped. 

This might be another good artifact to look for in addition to some of the unified logs I’ve highlighted previously in AirDropping some Knowledge. This is what Elwood’s Phone looks like after lots of AirDropping of various items for that blog. 

Disassociated but not Forgotten Attachments

It seems some attachments are no longer associated with those in the ZINTERACTIONS Table but are not necessarily removed from the ZATTACHMENTS Table. This has potential forensic use as well. APOLLO will not extract these as there doesn’t appear to be timestamps associated with it however, I HIGHLY recommend at least taking a brief look at this table when doing an investigation.

The example below shows may attachment files of different types were associated with a contact interaction.  

  • PDF

  • Images (PNG, HEIC, JPG)

  • Contact VCard

  • Text

  • Archives

  • Movies

  • Documents

Unfortunately, we lose the contact context here. However, we can still find useful tidbits of information like text, file types, URLs, image UUIDs, etc.

Other examples include text that was copy/pasted, or URLs like a Google search link or a YouTube video that was sent.

A Note about Accounts & Recipient Counts

One more example of Mail (com.apple.mobilemail) shows the ACCOUNT column. This GUID can be used to tie interactions to a specific email account in the Accounts databases (Accounts3.sqlite/Accounts4.sqlite).

The Recipient Count columns can be a bit misleading. The column I’ve labeled ‘Recipient Count’ is the amount of recipients on an interaction. This examples shows 2, however that does not include myself. This is an example of an email thread between Heather, Lee, Phil, and myself. I would have thought there would be at least a 3 in this column however that doesn’t appear to be the case. A good example to not make assumptions!

The incoming/outgoing sender/recipient count columns are even more misleading – I haven’t quite figured those out but I believe this might be the total amount of interactions versus the amount of “recipients” on those interactions.

InteractionsC.db can really be a useful database, especially when it is used along with all the other data that APOLLO extracts – context can be everything!

Extensive knowledgeC APOLLO Updates!

While helping some investigators out I realized that my some of my APOLLO knowledgeC modules needed a bit of updating. Naturally I thought it would be quick, but it turned into quite an extensive update. I’ve included lots of brand-new modules as well as updates to ones that I’ve had before. 

Most of the updates to the older ones provided better backwards compatibility with older versions of macOS and iOS as well as adding additional contextual items to some of the queries from ZSTRUCTUREDMETADATA. Regression testing was performed on iOS 11, 12, and 13 and macOS 10.13, 10.14, and 10.15. Of course, please let me know if you run into a knowledgeC “stream” that I’ve not created a module for, or any issues that you might come across. 

I’ve highlighted a few modules below using my iOS 13.5 device. However, they may also apply to macOS and older iOS versions as well – review the modules for more documentation.

New Modules:

  • knowledge_activity_level_feedback.txt

  • knowledge_airplay_prediction.txt

  • knowledge_calendar_event_title.txt

  • knowledge_charging_smart_topoff_checkpoint.txt

  • knowledge_dasd_battery_temperature.txt

  • knowledge_device_locked_imputed.txt

  • knowledge_discoverability_usage.txt

  • knowledge_event_tombstone.txt

  • knowledge_inferred_microlocation_visit.txt

  • knowledge_knowledge_sync_addition_window.txt

  • knowledge_photos_edit_all.txt

  • knowledge_photos_deletes_all.txt

  • knowledge_photos_deletes_recent.txt

  • knowledge_photos_engagement.txt

  • knowledge_photos_share_airdrop.txt

  • knowledge_photos_share_all.txt

  • knowledge_photos_share_extension.txt

  • knowledge_segment_monitor.txt

  • knowledge_siri_activites.txt

  • knowledge_siri_flow_activity.txt

  • knowledge_sync_addition_window.txt

  • knowledge_sync_deletion_bookmark.txt

  • knowledge_user_first_backlight_after_wakeup.txt

The knowledge_app_activity_passbook.txt module was added to conveniently look for Apple Wallet (com.apple.Passbook) activity. Shown below I’m switching between my Apple Cash card and my Apple Card (yes, I got one for “research”).

The knowledge_photos_deletes_all.txt module appears to keep track of when I deleted a photo from the Photos app. This output is fairly vague. However, it could be useful in evidence destruction cases. The output of this one is similar to the other knowledge_photos_* modules.

Want to know if a thing was AirDrop’ed, copied, searched for, or otherwise interacted with from the iOS ShareSheet? The knowledge_sharesheet_feedback.txt module will help with that! Shown below, this module is keeping track of:

  • Photo Markups (com.apple.MarkupUI.Markup.MarkupPhotoExtension) via Camera App (com.apple.camera)

  • File Copies (com.apple.UIKit.activity.CopyToPasteboard) in Photos (com.apple.mobileslideshow)

  • Sending a photo in Messages (com.apple.MobileSMS) via Photos app (com.apple.mobileslideshow)

  • Finding text in a webpage (com.apple.mobilesafari.activity.findOnPage) in Safari (com.apple.mobilesafari)

  • Airdrop Activity (com.apple.UIKit.activity.AirDrop) 

Some modules are fairly self-explanatory. The knowledge_system_airplane_mode.txt modules keeps track of whether Airplane Mode on the device is enabled or not.

The next two are associated with the iOS low power mode functionality. The first, knowledge_device_battery_saver.txt which shows that I’ve activated Low Power Mode via the Control Center and while knowledge_device_low_power_mode.txt shows that it was turned on about two seconds after.

Click for larger view.

Updated Modules:

  • knowledge_activity_level.txt

  • knowledge_app_activity.txt

  • knowledge_app_activity_calendar.txt

  • knowledge_app_activity_clock.txt

  • knowledge_app_activity_mail.txt

  • knowledge_app_activity_maps.txt

  • knowledge_app_activity_notes.txt

  • knowledge_app_activity_photos.txt

  • knowledge_app_activity_safari.txt

  • knowledge_app_activity_weather.txt

  • knowledge_app_install.txt

  • knowledge_app_intents.txt

  • knowledge_app_location_activity.txt

  • knowledge_audio_bluetooth_connected.txt

  • knowledge_audio_output_route.txt

  • knowledge_device_batterylevel.txt

  • knowledge_device_inferred_motion.txt

  • knowledge_device_is_backlit.txt

  • knowledge_device_locked.txt

  • knowledge_device_pluggedin.txt

  • knowledge_discoverability_signals.txt

  • knowledge_notification_usage.txt

  • knowledge_paired_device_nearby.txt

  • knowledge_portrait_entity.txt

  • knowledge_portrait_topic.txt

  • knowledge_app_relevantshortcuts.txt

  • knowledge_safari_browsing.txt

  • knowledge_settings_doNotDisturb.txt

  • knowledge_siri.txt

  • knowledge_standby_timer.txt

  • knowledge_widgets_viewed.txt

The module knowledge_app_inFocus.txt has added extensions context. The extensions below show a location sign-in alert (com.apple.AuthKitUI.AKLocationSignInAlert) via the Springboard (com.apple.springboard), access to the Camera (com.apple.camera) via Messages (com.apple.MobileSMS), and access to Photos (com.apple.mobileslideshow) via Messages. All the while, playing around with the Unc0ver Jailbreak (science.xnu.undecimus).

New with knowledge_app_webusage.txt are the “Digital Health” columns. These will show website visits and associated URLs on various apps (not just Safari or Chrome!). 

In this example I was using Twitter (via Safari) on a device with the macOS hardware UUID (or iOS UDID) in Device ID column - let’s say my laptop. On my iPhone, I was also on Twitter but this time the iOS application (com.atebits.Tweetie2) ordering a new t-shirt from Jailbreak Brewery

Additions to knowledge_audio_media_nowplaying.txt include:

  • Is AirPlay Video

  • Playing – Values likely for Stopped, Playing, Paused – I will test those and update those in a future update.

  • Duration

  • Elapsed

  • Identifier

  • Media Type – Audio, Music, Video, Podcast

  • Output Device IDs (Binary plist in hex)

This is only a small slice of knowledgeC examples (and a very small part of APOLLO) so I hope this gives you some incentive to give it a try!

Analysis of Apple Unified Logs: Quarantine Edition [Entry 11] – AirDropping Some Knowledge

I’ve written about this before in this article but wanted to revisit it for this series. For this scenario I want to test what certain items might look like when they are AirDrop’ed from an unknown source. Many schools have been receiving bomb threats via AirDrop, I want to see if there is a way to discover where they originated from.

In my testing you will see artifacts from two iOS devices:

  • Sender: Elwood’s iPhone

  • Receiver: miPhone11 

Note: This article focuses on iOS. For macOS you will likely have to add --info to these queries to acquire similar information.

Starting with the AirDrop basics – we need to determine the AirDrop ID for each user. One thing I’ve discovered since my last analysis was that the AirDrop ID is not consistent for the life of the device, it changes all the time! The last (current) AirDrop ID can be found in the /private/var/mobile/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sharingd.plist on iOS devices. I’ve even seen where there is no AirDrop ID in this plist due to AirDrop inactivity. The following query can provide the Airdrop IDs that are still available in the unified logs.

log show system_logs.logarchive --predicate 'eventMessage contains "AirDrop ID"'

We may also want to know what Discoverability Mode was being used at the time. A quick query for this is to look for ‘SharingDaemon’ which contains some sharingd metadata information.

log show system_logs.logarchive --predicate 'eventMessage contains "SharingDaemon State"'

These messages contain a few useful items:

  • Device make/model

  • iOS Version

  • Battery Status

  • Discoverability mode (Everyone, Contacts Only, Off)

  • Screen Status

  • Unlock Status

  • Wireless Proximity Status

In our contrived scenario we are assuming the receiver has their discoverability mode set to ‘Everyone’ during the time in question. The current mode can also be seen in the com.apple.sharingd.plist file. One more way of seeing the discoverability mode is by using this query (yes, I accidentally put in two --info arguments, this of course is not required):

log show --info system_logs.logarchive --predicate 'eventMessage contains "Scanning mode"'

On the Sender Device (Elwood’s iPhone):

Sharing Methods 

The first indication of AirDrop usage is how it is being initiated. This process is known as the ‘ShareSheet’. This is the window that is presented to the user to choose how they want to share an item. In this screenshot, I want to share a photo from within the Photos app. We can choose AirDrop, Messages, Mail, Notes, etc. Below that is a set of other activities that can be performed on the chosen photo.

This query can show us what application an item is being shared from. Each shared item may have different sharing options. This blog will show activity while AirDropping a photo, a note, a map, and a Safari link. 

log show system_logs.logarchive --predicate 'category = "ShareSheet" or category = "SharingUI"'

Starting at the top, a good indicator that something is about to be shared is to look for the message ‘Activating com.apple.sharing.sharesheet’. A connection will be made with the specific app that is to be shared from, in this example com.apple.mobileslideshow (Photos).

The items highlighted in red are looking for people to share with. This particular device is a test device with no contacts; therefore none were suggested. 

The items highlighted in purple and blue show the Share and Action activities that the user should see in the ShareSheet view.

In green, the “performing activity” message shows that AirDrop was selected by the user.

In pink, messages that start with “Item:” and have a GUID show that photos need a bit more preparation (file conversion, thumbnail creation, etc.). This was not seen in shared notes, maps, and Safari links. This specific activity can be filtered by using the GUID as shown below. The items highlighted in dark green provide temporary file paths used for the preparation but most importantly a filename that should be consistent with the item filename in the Photos.sqlite database (IMG_6782.JPG).

log show system_logs.logarchive --predicate 'eventMessage contains "74745469-9184-442C-B49D-5BE37CDD8CAA"'

More examples sharing methods of an AirDropped Note, Map, and a Safari Link are shown below. Notice the differences in the activities for each application. 

Note

Map

Safari Link

AirDropping an Item

Just because we see something was attempted to be shared, does not necessarily mean it was actually sent and received. The first part of this process is finding someone to AirDrop something to. I will be using the following query to go through some of these entries. 

log show system_logs.logarchive --predicate 'category = "AirDrop"'

In the screenshot above I’ve changed the default style to compact [with --style] to fit more in the screenshot. This shows the iPhone attempting to discover known and unknown contacts via Bonjour and AWDL. Highlighted are the entries that find my MacBook Air (Airdrop ID: eb4f5a53391b). Note the AWDL IPv6 addresses shown in yellow. These do appear get cached on the receiving end (look for messages that contain “com.apple.p2p: Caching peer:”). It appears AWDL IPv6/MAC addresses get rotated fairly frequently. These is another way of pairing two each device together (along with AirDrop IDs) but these are not kept forever and you need both devices to do this analysis.

Now that we have AirDrop contacts, lets send a photo! I sent a photo from Elwood’s iPhone to miPhone11 (IMG_6782.JPG) via Photos.

The message that start with “startSending” (in yellow) is what is being AirDrop’ed. It shows the item or file that it is sending along with the Receiver ID and Session ID. The Receiver ID is the AirDrop ID for the device that this item is being sent to, while the Session ID keeps track of this AirDrop session.

In green, the AirDrop transaction is started, however in dark green it shows that a connection cannot be made. During my testing, my miPhone11’s AirDrop ID got caught in an odd cached state with the wrong ID (3603f73a17de). The first time I attempted to AirDrop this photo it failed. It eventually discovered the correct ID (ecec57b722d8). Elwood’s iPhone showed a ‘Waiting…’ message and the transaction would not complete.

The second time around it actually sent. Note the changed AirDrop ID for miPhone11 is now 04f30cbdcb55. These IDs change all the time. It also recognizes the device can handle a live photo in an HEIC file format, so it sends that instead of the JPG.

The ShareSheet information for the Live Photo is below. I recommend matching up the GUIDs to find this information. Filtering for 6C85AC86-BEF2-42BC-9862-4982211791DF (from the screenshot above) would allow me to run the query below to find the rest of the actions associated with this asset.

log show system_logs.logarchive --predicate 'eventMessage contains "A79A3C4F-AF63-486E-A7FC-4173753B12E2"'

A few more AirDrop examples, a note, a map, and a Safari link.

Note

These entries show a note with the title ‘This is a threatening note!’ was shared but no contents of the note itself.

Map

Sharing a Map item, provides title but no exact address in this example.

Safari Link

Sending a Safari link shows the domain but no specific details on the URL. 

The same Safari link as a PDF file:

Sending the same link but as a PDF shows no domain at all.

These items lose context when only the unified logs are looked at. You may have to correlate these actions with other application databases and artifacts (Photos, Notes, Maps, Safari History, etc.) to provide this context.

On the Receiving Device (miPhone11):

We will be using a generic AirDrop query to find all entries associated.

log show system_logs.logarchive --info --predicate 'category = "AirDrop"'

A user receiving files can choose to accept or decline. These responses are documented in the unified logs.

For an incoming transfer an AirDrop connection is made with an identifier (0x101495960). After this entry there are quite a few lines detailing what type of file it is and where it is coming from. To know if the user has Accepted or Declined the transfer we need to focus on the ‘userResponse’ sections. The entry shown in green is the popup alert that is presented to the user to do this action.

Once the user has selected ‘Accept’, the transfer continues and is opened up in the default application for the file. This example shows the photo being imported and opened in Photos (com.apple.mobileslideshow). Once complete, the AirDrop connection is terminated. This photo could be found by looking for the “16C753E1-309A-46FD-A742-998D7A31047E” ZUUID in the ZGENERICASSET table of the Photos.sqlite database and looking for the associated file name.

If the user declines the AirDrop transfer the same message would show Declined or Cancelled and the AirDrop connection is terminated. 

How about an all-in-one query to tell me what transfers were initiated, from whom, where they Accepted or Declined, and opening information.

log show system_logs.logarchive --predicate 'category = "AirDrop" and (eventMessage contains "New incoming transfer" or eventMessage contains "Opening URLs:" or eventMessage contains "alertLog: idx:")' --style compact

Each of the gray highlighted sections is an incoming transfer from Elwood’s iPhone. Some transfers have an ‘Opening URLs’ entry that provides more context to what was sent, especially when it comes to Map and Safari links. It should be pointed out that just because you see a hostname like Elwood’s iPhone to be careful with attributing it to Elwood. Device hostnames are incredibly easy to change to let’s say…’Jake’s Google Pixel! 

I spent ages trying to come up with a smoking gun on a ‘victim’ device to attribute an AirDrop action to a specific sender device. There really does not appear to be a static identifier to be able to identify a specific address. AirDrop ID, AWDL IPv6/MAC addresses are the only way to pair these actions between devices but you need both devices to be able to do this type of correlation. This, of course, can be tricky in most investigations. Even if you do have access to the devices, the data gets flushed fairly quickly – you may only have a few days to acquire these logs.