SleuthKit is probably one of the most comprehensive collections of tools for forensic filesystem analysis. One of the most basic use-cases is the recovery of files that have been deleted. However, SleuthKit can do much, much more. Have a look at the case studies wiki page for an impression.

Let’s assume, there is a FAT volume on our disk (maybe a USB stick or a memory card) and we want to recover all deleted file. The safest way is probably to duplicate the entire volume first and perform an offline analysis. Again, there are quite a few tools for creating (forensic) images, the simpliest probably being dd.

To dump all partitions of your disk use

$ dd if=/dev/sdg of=/tmp/disk.img bs=512

Of course, you could also dump just one partition (e.g. /dev/sdg2).

To get the partition table layout, you can the use mmls on the image file

$ mmls /tmp/disk.img
DOS Partition Table
Offset Sector: 0
Units are in 512-byte sectors

     Slot    Start        End          Length       Description
00:  Meta    0000000000   0000000000   0000000001   Primary Table (#0)
01:  -----   0000000000   0000000134   0000000135   Unallocated
02:  00:00   0000000135   0003858623   0003858489   DOS FAT16 (0x06)
03:  -----   0003858624   0003862527   0000003904   Unallocated

fsstat is used to get information about the filesystem itself. In this case, the target partition starts with an offset of 135, so the imgoffset flag -o is mandatory (if you just dump a single partition, there is of course no offset and -o is not needed).

$ fsstat -o 135 /tmp/disk.img
FILE SYSTEM INFORMATION
--------------------------------------------
File System Type: FAT16

OEM Name: MSDOS5.0
Volume ID: 0x34333064
Volume Label (Boot Sector): NO NAME    
Volume Label (Root Directory):
File System Type Label: FAT16   

Sectors before file system: 135
[...]

You can now do all sorts of things with your image file, e.g. recursively list all file and directories (including deleted ones);

$ fls -o 135 -r /tmp/disk.img

To recover a deleted file by inode number, you can use the command line tool icat

icat -o 135 -r /tmp/disk.img 54 > /tmp/DeletedPicture.jpg

For a quick overview and simple examples on other commands have a look at http://rationallyparanoid.com/articles/sleuth-kit.html.

The SleuthKit wiki points to a great script by Dave Henkewick that runs recursively through the image file and uses fls and icat to retrive the inode numbers and restore the files:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

# (C) 2004 dave (at) hoax (dot) ca
# ************* THIS SCRIPT HAS NO WARRANTY! **************
#
# this script works with the output from SleuthKit's fls and icat version: 3.00
# using afflib-3.3.4
#
# dont worry if you do not have the same versions because it should work unless
# the output from the commands have changed
#
# if the script does not work, please email me the debug output and
# the output from manually running fls and icat, thanks!
#
# set the recovery directory 
my $fullpath="/tmp/recover/";

# set the absolute path of fls binary
my $FLS="/usr/bin/fls";

# set the fls options
my @FLS_OPT=("-o","135","-f","fat","-pr","-m $fullpath","-s 0");

# set the path of the device to be recovered
my $FLS_IMG="/tmp/disk.img";

# set the inode of the directory to be recovered
my $FLS_inode="2";

# set the path of the icat STDERR log
my $ICAT_LOG="/tmp/icat.log";

# set the absolute path of the icat binary
my $ICAT="/usr/bin/icat";

# set the icat options
my @ICAT_OPT=("-o","135","-f","fat");

my $ICAT_IMG="$FLS_IMG";

# here we go. hold on tight!
list($FLS_inode);


sub list($) {
	#make the recovery dir
	system("mkdir","-p","$fullpath") && die "Cannot mkdir $fullpath while processing: $_";
	#run a recursive FLS on our chosen inode and regex each line
	foreach $_ (`$FLS @FLS_OPT $FLS_IMG $_[0] 2>&1`) {
		regex($_);
		#print $_;
	}
}

sub regex($) {
	#first, regex for dirs, clean 'em up, and create 'em in recovery dir
	#
	# the following regex will work on output of the format:
	# 0|/directory/file.foo.bar (deleted)|0|r/----------|0|0|0|0|0|0
	# 0|/directory/file.foo.bar|1384462|r/rrw-r--r--|1000|1000|971556|1218136846|1218136846|1225037181|0
	# 0|/directory|1392712|d/drwxr-xr-x|1000|1000|4096|1225309096|1225309096|1226059913|0
	# 0|/directory/file.foo.bar -> /directory2/file2.foo.bar|1384462|l/lrw-r--r--|1000|1000|971556|1218136846|1218136846|1225037181|0
	#
	#
	if (/(\d\|([\S\s]+)\|(\d+)\|\S\/d([\w-]{3})([\w-]{3})([\w-]{3})(\|\d+\|\d+\|\d+\|\d+\|\d+\|\d+\|\d+))/) {
		my $fulldir = $2;
		my $uid = $4; my $gid = $5; my $oid = $6;
		$fulldir =~ s/ (\(deleted(\)|\-realloc\)))$//g;
		$fulldir =~ s/ /_/g;
		$uid =~ s/-//g; $gid =~ s/-//g; $oid =~ s/-//g;
		$uid = lc($uid); $gid = lc($gid); $oid = lc($oid);
		#print "mkdir -p $fulldir\n";
		system("mkdir","-p","$fulldir") && die "Cannot mkdir $fulldir while processing: $_";
		#print "chmod u=$uid,g=$gid,o=$oid $fulldir\n";
		system("chmod","u=$uid,g=$gid,o=$oid","$fulldir") && die "Cannot chmod u=$uid,g=$gid,o=$oid $fulldir while processing: $_";
	#second, regex for files, sockets, fifos then
	#clean and dump them in recovery dir	
	} elsif (/(\d\|([\S\s]+)\|(\d+)\|\S\/(-|s|f|r)([\w-]{3})([\w-]{3})([\w-]{3})((\|\d+\|\d+\|\d+\|\d+\|\d+\|\d+\|\d+)|(\|\d+\|\d+\|\d+\|\d+\|\d+\|\d+)))/) {
		my $inode = $3;
		my $fullfile = $2;
		$fullfile =~ s/ (\(deleted(\)|\-realloc\)))$//g;
		$fullfile =~ s/ /_/g;
		#print "$ICAT @ICAT_OPT $ICAT_IMG $inode > $fullfile\n" if ($inode != 0);
		system("$ICAT @ICAT_OPT $ICAT_IMG $inode > \"$fullfile\" 2>> $ICAT_LOG") if ($inode != 0);
		#cannot use die cuz an invalid inode will kill the script
		#&& die "Cannot icat $inode into \"$fullfile\" while processing: $_"
		
	# thrid, regex for symlink, clean, and create in recovery dir
	} elsif (/(\d\|([\S\s]+)\s\-\>\s([\S\s]+)\|(\d+)\|\S\/(l)([\w-]{3})([\w-]{3})([\w-]{3})(\|\d+\|\d+\|\d+\|\d+\|\d+\|\d+\|\d+))/) {
		#print "$1\n";
		my $fullsym_dst = $2; my $fullsym_src = $3;
		$fullsym_dst =~ s/ /_/g; $fullsym_src =~ s/ /_/g;
		#print "ln -s $fullsym_src $fullsym_dst\n";
		system("ln","-s","$fullsym_src","$fullsym_dst") && die "Cannot ln $fullsym_src $fullsym_dst while processing: $_";
	} else {
		print "Unknown directory listing. File or directory NOT recovered\nDebug:\n$_[0]\n";
	}
} #that's all folks. hope y'all had fun!

Another great tool is the Autopsy Forensic Browser, a graphical frontend to the SleuthKit commands that runs in your browser.