The aim of this project is to exercise and test your ability to read and understand descriptions of data formats and to interpret raw data according to a particular format. In this exercise you will produce and read the dump of a ZIP file.
Detailed description:
perform four tasks:
(a) create ZIP archive with a single file in it (each person should produce her/his own - if identical files are submitted for interpretation, they will be returned to the students unmarked);
(b) prepare a hexadecimal dump of the first 80 bytes of the ZIP archive using online hexadecimal dumping utility http://www.fileformat.info/tool/hexdump.htm;
(c) analyze the hexadecimal dump using the description of the ZIP file format given in this Wikipedia article. The aim of the analysis is to determine the following information about the file stored in the ZIP archive:
o Uncompressed size of the file (31%),
o last modification date of the file (31%),
o last modification time of the file (31%)
(d) Produce a brief (2-3 page) report showing how you MANUALLY translated hexadecimal dump values into the resulting values. 7% of the overall grade may be given for the tidiness of the report.
Summary:
The aim of this assignment is to exercise and test your ability to read and understand descriptions of incomplete FAT file system fragments. In this exercise you will explore a binary file that contains part of a FAT file system and will recover files and folders present in that fragment.
Detailed description:
Suppose that you found an incomplete disk image (a bit-for-bit copy of the contents) of a small computer disk drive. The disk image is incomplete - the boot sector and some unknown number of the following sectors are missing. You can download the file data.bin here.
Perform the following tasks:
(a) Explore the supplied disk image using a hexadecimal editor, such as WinHex,and identify the location (offset from the start of the file) of each of the main FAT file system elements found in the supplied file :
1. File Allocation Table
2. Root Directory
3. Beginning of the Data Area
(b) Identify - as much as possible - the information about the active and deleted files and sub-directories present in data.bin . For each discovered file or sub-directory please try to determine its:
1. Short File Name
2. Long File Name (if present)
3. Active / Deleted status
4. Attributes
5. Timestamps (Creation, Last modification & Last Access)
6. Likely contents
Although it is possible to do the analysis completely manually, you are allowed to use automation with the following condition: If you are using an automated tool, you must explain step by step how the tool got its results.
(c) Produce a report presenting the above. Extra 3 points are given for the tidiness of the report.ma