Reference Material for Assessing Forensic SIM Tools

Subscriber identity modules (SIMs) are a fundamental standardized component of most cell phones used worldwide. A SIM can be removed from a phone handset and inserted into another, allowing users to port identity, personal information, and service between devices. All cell phones are expected to incorporate some type of identity module eventually, in part, because of this useful property. Some of the earliest, general purpose, forensic tools for cell phones targeted SIMs to recover digital evidence. While over. time the capabilities and number of such tools have increased, they are not completely free of problems. Validating a forensic SIM tool is an essential quality assurance measure. It allows a forensic specialist to determine how to compensate for any shortcomings identified or whether to use one version of the tool in lieu of another. Tool manufacturers also benefit from rigorously validating their products before releasing them. However, creating reference SIMs that contain comprehensive test data can be time consuming and difficult to accomplish. This paper describes an approach for automating the population of test data onto SIMs to create reference material for use in tool validation. It also covers details of the implementation and explains characteristics of SIMs that pertain to the solution.