Digital Forensic Research for Analyzing Drone Pilot: Focusing on DJI Remote Controller.

Area of Science:

• Digital Forensics
• Cybersecurity
• Aviation Technology

Background:

• Drones (unmanned aerial vehicles/UAVs) are increasingly used for various applications but also pose security risks when misused as weapons.
• Misuse of drones necessitates rapid analysis to identify perpetrators and illegal activities.
• Existing research often has limitations in data collection from drone systems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a comprehensive digital forensic methodology for drone remote controllers.
• To enable accurate analysis of drone-related crimes and identification of responsible pilots.
• To contribute to cybersecurity and human safety by addressing drone misuse.

Main Methods:

• Focused on collecting and analyzing data from drone remote controllers, unlike previous studies.
• Developed new methodologies and artifacts for data extraction and analysis.
• Employed reverse engineering to decrypt critical information files from remote controllers.

Main Results:

• Successfully unveiled pilot account information, drone specifics, timestamps, operational locations, and flight paths.
• Recovered content captured during drone flights.
• Demonstrated the feasibility of digital forensic investigations on remote controller devices using real-world data.

Conclusions:

• This research establishes a pioneering digital forensic methodology for drone remote controllers.
• The proposed methods and artifacts are crucial for investigating drone-related crimes.
• Findings significantly contribute to drone system security and digital forensic investigations.