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Stefan Fleischmann
Username: admin

Registered: 1-2001
Posted on Friday, Apr 9, 2021 - 16:17:   

A preview version of X-Ways Forensics 20.3 is now available. The URL of the download directory for all recent versions can be retrieved by querying one's license status as always.

What's new in v20.3 Preview 1?

* The OCR capabilities of the software package Tesseract can now be utilized from within X-Ways Forensics and X-Ways Investigator. The package can be downloaded from our web server. Updated download instructions are available from the same place as always. If Tesseract is found by v20.3 in the subdirectory \Tesseract of the installation directory when v20.3 is first run, Tesseract will be activated automatically. Otherwise please go to Options | Viewer Programs to indicate the path.

* OCR can be applied as part of logical searches or indexing to suitable files such as document scans or digitally stored faxes in TIFF format or PDF documents that contain only graphic content. The default file masks includes even *.jpg, however, whether applying OCR to every JPEG file in a case is a little excessive or necessary is up to you to decide, and you have full control over the scope of the search using various means anyway. Please be aware that high-resolution photos cost a lot of time to check of text. Digital photos in JPEG and HEIC format will be rotated according to the instructions in the Exif metadata to restore the correct orientation and thus hopefully allow OCR of text that was originally photographed roughly horizontally. If the ordinary text decoding is already successful for a given file of a type that is contained in both file masks (*.pdf), OCR will not be applied additionally. The option "Store decoded text for context preview and future searches" will also keep text derived from OCR stored in the volume snapshot.

* Search hits returned by the logical search in OCR-derived text are identified as such in the Descr. column and highlighted in a different color. The Descr. filter allows you to list only such OCR search hits or not OCR hits. Older versions of X-Ways Forensics can see OCR search hits from v20.3 when opening the same case, but won't know that they are OCR search hits.

* You can select up to two languages for text recognition at the same time, after clicking the ... button for this in Options | Viewer Programs. However, there is a trade-off if you select Chinese/Japanese and a Western language at the same time. This will deteriorate the recognition of the Asian characters. You may want to select *only* Chinese/Japanese for much better recognition in that language. English (actually Latin) letters can still be recognized in that case, even if English is not expressly selected, at reduced quality. Select both Chinese/Japanese and a Western language at the same time only if correct recognition is more important to you in the Western language.

* Preview mode now has a separate submode in addition to Raw submode, called Text mode, in which pure text from non-picture files is extracted, just like for the logical search with the decode option. That submode can also be useful to better understand how text is extracted from various document types, in particular from spreadsheets, for which different extraction options exist that may differ in output, especially in formatting.

* If the ordinary text extraction/decoding in Text submode does not return any result or if the previewed file is a picture file, and if Tesseract is available and active, OCR will be applied. This allows you to better understand how well OCR will work in searches for the kind of files that you are dealing with. You can also experiment with different languages selected and compare the quality of the results. The submode button is named "Text" by default, but will change its label to "OCR" to make you aware that OCR is or was employed to retrieve the text. OCR can be time-consuming for multi-page TIFF and PDF files, but can be interrupted by the user if necessary. If a logical search or indexing has applied OCR to a file before and the result was stored in the volume snapshot, then the OCR-based preview will be available instantly and OCR will not be re-applied from scratch.

* Both submodes Raw and Text in Preview mode remain active until you leave Preview mode or select a file of a different type. If you prefer to make either of these submodes more persistent, so that it remains active even when previewing files of different types, you can hold the Shift key while clicking the respective submode button.

* The Tesseract package that is downloadable from our web server already has support for the following languages integrated, in alphabetic order:
ara: Arabic
chi_sim: simplified Chinese (horizontal writing only)
chi_tra: traditional Chinese (horizontal writing only)
deu: German
eng: English
fra: French
heb: Hebrew
ita: Italian
jpn: Japanese (horizontal writing only)
kor: Korean (horizontal writing only)
nld: Dutch
pol: Polish
rus: Russian
spa: Spanish
swe: Swedish
tur: Turkish
Other languages can be added if you can find .traineddata files for them at https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tessdata_fast. Such files simply need to be put into the \tessdata subdirectory of Tesseract. Or you can visit https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tessdata_best to download higher quality OCR engines for any of the supported languages. (Please note that OCR takes considerably more time with them.)

* Supported file types are generally the following: PDF, PostScript (PS), TIFF, JPEG, HEIC, PNG, GIF, BMP, WEBP, AutoCAD DXF, Photoshop PSP, and maybe more.

* Ability to use the Descr. filter to focus on search hits in misaligned UTF-16 text.

* Ability to highlight search hits in alternative e-mail previews.

* Cyclic tab key order defined in the main window also in search hit list mode.

* Some minor improvements.

* Same fix level as v20.2 SR-1.
Jake Gibson
Username: gibson

Registered: N/A
Posted on Friday, Apr 9, 2021 - 20:15:   

Thank you....this is a great update
Stefan Fleischmann
Username: admin

Registered: 1-2001
Posted on Tuesday, Apr 13, 2021 - 20:14:   

Preview 1b:

* Slightly more complete OCR output for certain PDF documents.

* Some minor improvements.
Ted Smith
Username: ted_smith

Registered: N/A
Posted on Thursday, Apr 15, 2021 - 11:30:   

Very nice Stefan. I will try and take a look as soon as I can and explore this great addition to XWF. I know OCR has been hoped for by many of us for some time.
Stefan Fleischmann
Username: admin

Registered: 1-2001
Posted on Friday, Apr 16, 2021 - 11:51:   

Preview 2:

* New X-Tension API functions XWF_PrepareTextAccess() and XWF_GetText().

* Some fixes and minor improvements.
Stefan Fleischmann
Username: admin

Registered: 1-2001
Posted on Monday, Apr 19, 2021 - 7:19:   

Preview 2b:

* One fix and one minor improvement.
Stefan Fleischmann
Username: admin

Registered: 1-2001
Posted on Tuesday, May 4, 2021 - 19:43:   

Preview 3:

* Compressed data chunks in NTFS-deduplicated files are now decompressed, i.e. such files can now be opened. Requires access to Windows 8 or later.

* New option to name carved files after the number of their respective first sector, either with or without leading zeroes.

* Ability to apply the Flex Filters to the additional columns of event lists, such as event timestamp and event description.

* In Ext file systems, a new volume snapshot option allows running a more in-depth parsing of deleted directory entries during the initial creation of the volume snapshot, even if they are misaligned in relation to the current directory entries. This might find additional previously existing files in Ext, at a likely manageable risk of finding some garbage entries as well. The checkbox for this is labeled "Ext: Try misaligned deleted dir entries".

* The file "GREP Expressions.txt", in which X-Ways Forensics recalls friendly names of your favorite regular expressions, is now named "Regular Expressions.txt". Please rename your existing file, if you have one.

* Several of the changes and fixes of v20.2 SR-3.
Stefan Fleischmann
Username: admin

Registered: 1-2001
Posted on Friday, May 28, 2021 - 15:37:   

Beta 1:

* Ability to interpret backup bundles created by Apple Time Machine as disks, by opening and interpreting the file "com.apple.TimeMachine.MachineID.plist". Requires WinHex Lab Edition or higher. Once interpreted, in X-Ways Forensics you can add the simulated disk to the case as an evidence object if considered relevant, as usually for example by right-clicking the tab and invoking the menu command for that.

* Faster performance when dealing with undefined/sparse areas in backup bundles, VDI, VHD, VHDX, and VMDK disk images, including differencing images, i.e. virtual disk images with "parents".

* There is now an option to not show internal information such as examiner name and case path and image paths in the case report, if the report is generated for people outside of your organization.

* There is also an option to not show the technical description of evidence objects. That could be useful to avoid unnecessary discussions with computer laypersons in court or elsewhere about what a "sector size" is etc.

* The number of matches of blockwise hashing that is output as search hits is now mentioned in the Messages window, to inform the user of the results and remind him or her of in what form to find them.

* The Recover/Copy command, when applied to the Case Root window and when run with the option to recreate partial paths will now gather child objects of files in subdirectories just like when applied to one particular evidence object.

* Several minor improvements.
Stefan Fleischmann
Username: admin

Registered: 1-2001
Posted on Thursday, Jun 10, 2021 - 8:53:   

Beta 2:

* Improved detection of generating device class and processing state of pictures based on dimensions.

* Various improvements.

* Fix level above v20.2 SR-4.
Stefan Fleischmann
Username: admin

Registered: 1-2001
Posted on Monday, Jun 14, 2021 - 20:30:   

Beta 2b:

* The new X-Tension API functions XWF_GetColumnTitle and XWF_GetCellText allow to retrieve the contents of all directory browser cells as text.

* The command "Import evidence objects" now by default imports all evidence objects in a case, and only evidence objects marked as important if you hold the Shift key at the moment when the import starts.

* If a parameter in the command line is the path or name of an .xfc file, and if at that point when the parameter is processed a case is already open, then the evidence objects of that .xfc file will be imported into the already active case. (In previous versions this would have closed the active case and opened the other case.)

* Some minor improvements.
Stefan Fleischmann
Username: admin

Registered: 1-2001
Posted on Thursday, Jul 1, 2021 - 18:58:   

Beta 3:

* Raw representation of newer $LogFile files of Windows 10 available.

* The menu commands File | Restore Image and Specialist | Technical Details Report are now available in X-Ways Imager.

* Case reports created by X-Ways Investigator can now show the hash values of files.

* Ability to merge report tables in the dialog window for report table associations.

* When importing evidence objects from another case, report tables in the selected imported case with no associations in the imported evidence objects are no longer imported. Report tables in the selected imported case that have the same names as existing report tables in the target case are now merged with the latter.

* X-Tension API: The XWF_ManageSearchTerm() function can now rename search terms, for example so that they appear with a more user-friendly name.

* Same fix level as v20.2 SR-5.
Stefan Fleischmann
Username: admin

Registered: 1-2001
Posted on Monday, Jul 12, 2021 - 14:14:   

Beta 4:

* Including the column headers when exporting or copying a list in TSV or HTML format is now optional.

* Volume shadow copy host files are now treated as if their data was initialized/valid although the NTFS file system says otherwise, to avoid unnecessary complications for users who run X-Ways Forensics with the standard setting of "Read uninitialized areas as binary zeroes".

* Recognizes the file system QNX in a partition as such.

* More camera definitions, including 8th generation of the iPad.

* Several minor improvements.
Stefan Fleischmann
Username: admin

Registered: 1-2001
Posted on Monday, Jul 12, 2021 - 15:24:   

The password to download the dongle-based version of X-Ways Forensics has changed.
Stefan Fleischmann
Username: admin

Registered: 1-2001
Posted on Tuesday, Jul 20, 2021 - 12:07:   

v20.3 has just been released.

Additional changes:

* Fixed an instability issue that could affect X-Tensions conducting certain file read activities when run with multiple threads and responding to XT_ProcessItem().

* Ability to load search terms from text files with Unix/Linux line breaks.
Stefan Fleischmann
Username: admin

Registered: 1-2001
Posted on Sunday, Jul 25, 2021 - 15:34:   

SR-1:

* Option to immediately output new hash set matches also as report table associations, either all of them, or (if half selected) only for notable hash sets.

* Improved fidelity when producing .eml representations of certain single-part plain-text e-mails in MSG format.

* If OCR was unsuccessful for the last page of a PDF document, text from preceding pages was previously discarded. That was fixed.

* Shows pictures in WEBP format in the case report just like various other picture file types that are typically supported by web browsers.

* Dialog window selections, which are saved in and loaded from .dlg files, in the case of the directory browser options dialog now include the order of the columns in the directory browser.

* The service release number is now reflected in the modification timestamps of the installation files in the zip archive, as the number of seconds, so that you can automatically parse it if needed.

* Some minor improvements.
Stefan Fleischmann
Username: admin

Registered: 1-2001
Posted on Friday, Aug 13, 2021 - 10:02:   

SR-2:

* The file format specific encryption test did not work as intended in v20.3. That was fixed.

* Prevented an unnecessary read operation from a physical storage device when opening a partition from the case tree (potentially relevant when creating skeleton images).

* The Recover/Copy command was unable to create directories with very long paths in certain constellations. That was fixed.

* The "Hash computed" filter option of Hash 2 was erroneously applied to the Hash 1 column. That was fixed already in the original release of v20.3.

* The downloadable English-language Tooltips.txt file was revised.

* Some minor improvements.
Stefan Fleischmann
Username: admin

Registered: 1-2001
Posted on Monday, Aug 23, 2021 - 18:39:   

SR-3:

* Avoids a conflict between processing of command line parameters and recovery from a crash upon restarting.

* Addresses a potential cause of inavailability of the "Refine volume snapshot" command.

* The X-Tension API function XWF_GetItemCount() now has additional capabilities.
Stefan Fleischmann
Username: admin

Registered: 1-2001
Posted on Tuesday, Aug 31, 2021 - 19:23:   

SR-4:

* Fixed a rare exception error that could occur when creating text representations of dialog windows.

* Applied the latest security fixes of the FFmpeg library.

* Some minor improvements.
Stefan Fleischmann
Username: admin

Registered: 1-2001
Posted on Sunday, Sep 26, 2021 - 11:30:   

SR-5:

* The X-Tension API function XWF_GetCellText() did not work for all columns. That was fixed.

* The FlexFilter did not always target the right columns in v20.3 if the column order was redefined by the user. That was fixed.

* Fixed an error in the alternative processing method of TAR archives that appended garbage characters to certain very long paths/filenames.

* Double-clicks on already selected items in the directory browser did not always work in v20.3. That was fixed.

* Fixed an occasional OCR problem with multiple threads.

* Case report: No thumbnail placeholders are output any more for directories in report tables.

* Fixed an exception error that could occur when viewing unprocessed PList files.

* Some minor improvements.
Stefan Fleischmann
Username: admin

Registered: 1-2001
Posted on Tuesday, Oct 12, 2021 - 5:28:   

SR-6:

* No more (futile) attempts to back up cases that are opened as read-only.

* When opening files that were carved and that contain NTFS-compressed data, the resulting decompressed file contents no longer contain a few surplus bytes.

* Avoids possible duplication when carving NTFS-compressed files.

* Some necessary initializations are now performed when triggering a logical search from the command line indirectly via RVS.

* Since v20.1, with the internal algorithm ~29 not all RAR archives were carved. That was fixed.

* Some minor improvements.
Stefan Fleischmann
Username: admin

Registered: 1-2001
Posted on Sunday, Oct 24, 2021 - 19:41:   

SR-7:

* Since v20.1, multipliers in regular expressions when applied to characters other than letters in Western languages did not work in UTF-16. That was fixed.

* Fixed inability to cleanly remove an evidence object from a case that is a reconstructed RAID once it had been opened in that session.

* Fixed a re-use error that could occur when viewing files externally from different evidence objects in the same session that had the same filenames and the same internal IDs in their respective volume snapshots.

* Some minor improvements.
Stefan Fleischmann
Username: admin

Registered: 1-2001
Posted on Monday, Nov 1, 2021 - 17:48:   

SR-8:

* Fixed an exception error that could occur since v20.2 when processing certain .evtx event log files.

* An error in the alternative spreadsheet text decoding method was fixed. This fix will also be available in v20.1 SR-13 and v20.2 SR-8. Please keep the application's main window in the foreground if you run a search with that option.

* The gallery now reflects the directory browser's scrollbar position when switching to gallery mode, like in v20.1 and earlier.
Stefan Fleischmann
Username: admin

Registered: 1-2001
Posted on Monday, Dec 20, 2021 - 8:38:   

SR-9:

* Some of the fixes and minor improvements introduced in later versions. Highly recommended to users whose access to updates covered no more than v20.3. Available to these users on request usually, for a limited time.
Stefan Fleischmann
Username: admin

Registered: 1-2001
Posted on Monday, Apr 11, 2022 - 10:37:   

SR-10:

* Some of the fixes and minor improvements introduced in later versions. Highly recommended to users whose access to updates covered no more than v20.3. Available to these users on request usually, for a limited time.
Stefan Fleischmann
Username: admin

Registered: 1-2001
Posted on Friday, May 27, 2022 - 9:47:   

SR-11:

* Some of the fixes and minor improvements introduced in later versions. Highly recommended to users whose access to updates covered no more than v20.3. Available to these users on request usually, for a limited time.
Stefan Fleischmann
Username: admin

Registered: 1-2001
Posted on Tuesday, Aug 30, 2022 - 15:26:   

SR-12:

* Some of the fixes and improvements introduced in later versions. Highly recommended to users whose access to updates covered no more than v20.3. Available to these users on request usually, for a limited time.
Stefan Fleischmann
Username: admin

Registered: 1-2001
Posted on Tuesday, Jan 10, 2023 - 18:19:   

SR-13:

* Some of the fixes and minor improvements introduced in later versions. Highly recommended to users whose access to updates covered no more than v20.3. Available to these users on request usually, for a limited time. This is probably the last service release for v20.3.

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