A Secure Virtualized Logging Scheme for Digital Forensics in Comparison with Kernel Module Approach

Digital forensics encompasses the process of identifying the perpetrator and the criminal method by analyzing the logs generated in the computer. Log files record the activities of the computer and by reading them one can know what kind of event happened at a certain time. Therefore, secure logs with the integrity property are essential. In this paper, we discuss two approaches to achieve the integrity of logs- the kernel module and virtualization, and compare them. Although virtualization is more inefficient in performance than the kernel module, it provides more security properties for logs. Thus, we then focus on the virtualization approach with a detailed proposal, which describes ways to preserve logs without tampering and deletion.