Investigating Android Chatous
21/07/2023 Friday
Chatous is a social media networking application that allows its users to chat anonymously with strangers from around the world. It provided a platform for individuals to choose specific topics or hashtags to find like-minded people and initiate chats. Remaining anonymous is the key feature that distinguishes Chatous because this gives users a sense of privacy and freedom to express themselves without revealing personal information.
Digital Forensics Value of Chatous
Analyzing Chatous artifacts provides the detectives with very useful information about the user's personality, such as the chat messages, the user's personal information, as well as the tags that are used by the users to describe themselves. This information can be very helpful especially because chatting anonymously with strangers can usually make people feel more comfortable and share their thoughts, experiences, and emotions more honestly. Without the fear of being recognized, judged by others, or facing consequences, individuals may more openly disclose their perspectives or discuss sensitive topics.
Location of Chatous Artifacts
Android Chatous App artifacts can be found at the following locations:
com.chatous.chatous/databases/chatous.db
com.chatous.chatous/shared_prefs/com.chatous.chatous.prefs.xml
Analyzing Chatous with ArtiFast
This section will discuss how to use ArtiFast to extract Chatous from Android and what kind of digital forensics insights we can gain from the artifacts.
After you have created your case and added evidence for the investigation, at the Artifact Selection phase, you can select Chatous artifacts.
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Once ArtiFast parser plugins complete processing the artifact for analysis, it can be reviewed via “Artifact View” or “Timeline View,” with indexing, filtering, and searching capabilities. Below is a detailed description of Android Chatous artifacts in ArtiFast.
Chatous Local User Account
- User Name - The username of the local user.
- Created Date/Time - The date and time when the account was created.
- Screen Name - The display name of the local user.
- Location - Location of the local user.
- Likes - The number of likes the local user has.
- About - A summary of the local user.
- Birthdate - The birthdate of the local user.
- Age - Age of the local user.
- Gender - The gender of the local user.
- Profile Tags - The hashtags that the local user uses to describe oneself.
- Profile Photo - The URL of the user profile photo.
- Email Address - The email address of the local user.
Chatous Chat Partners
- Screen Name - Name of the chat partner.
- Last Message Date/Time - The date and time of the last message in the chat.
- Age - Age of the chat partner.
- Gender - The gender of the chat partner.
- Location - Location of the chat partner.
- About - A summary of the chat partner.
- Tag - The tag that matched the local user and the chat partner for a chat.
- Profile Tags - The hashtags that the chat partner uses to describe themselves.
- Last Message Text - The last message exchanged between the local user and the chat partner.
- Likes - The number of likes the user has.
- Status - The online status of the chat partner.
Chatous Chat Messages
- Message - The content of the message.
- Message Sent Date/Time - The date and time when the message was sent.
- Sender - The name of the user who sent the message.
- Recipient - The name of the user who received the message.
- Attachment Name - The name of the attachment that was sent.
- Attachment Delivered Date/Time - The date and time when the attachment was delivered.
- Attachment View Date/Time - The date and time when the attachment was viewed.
- Attachment Recovered - Indicates whether attachment data was recovered or not.
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