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Investigating VLC Media Player

20/04/2021 Tuesday

VLC Media Player (VideoLAN Client) has been developed by the VideoLAN community as a free and open source, lightweight, cross-platform media player app, and streaming media server. VLC is available for Linux, iOS, iPadOS, Tizen, Windows 10 Mobile, Windows Phone desktop operating systems, and mobile platforms. VLC accepts many types of audio and video compression, including DVD-Video, video CD and streaming protocols, and file formats. It can stream media and transcode video files over computer networks.


Digital Forensics Value of VLC Media Player Artifacts


VLC artifacts contains information about the media files that are played using the VLC Media Player. This artifact discloses information on the user's interaction with the application and files that were played in the player. Also, it is supported in Linux, Windows 8 and 10, Android, and iOS. Tracking such information is critical during the digital forensic analysis process.


Location of VLC Media Player Artifacts


Windows 7/8/10: C:\Users\User Name\AppData\Roaming\vlc\vlc-qt-interface.ini


Analyzing VLC Media Player Artifacts with ArtiFast Windows


This section will discuss how to use ArtiFast Windows to analyze VLC Media Player artifacts from Windows machines and what kind of digital forensics insights we can gain from the artifacts.

After you have created your case and added evidence for investigation, at the Artifacts Parser Selection Phase, you can select VLC Media Player artifacts:




ArtiFast can analyze VLC Media Player Audio Files, Recently Played Files and Watched Videos. For demonstration purposes, all the artifacts have been chosen, however, you have the option to select one or more artifacts.



Once ArtiFast parser plugins complete processing artifacts for analysis, it can be reviewed via “Artifact View” or “Timeline View,” with indexing, filtering, and searching capabilities. Below is a detailed description of VLC Media Player artifacts in ArtiFast software.


VLC Media Player Audio Files Artifact


VLC Media Player Recently Played Files Artifact


VLC Media Player Watched Videos Artifact