One of the easiest ways to parse application data is to create custom SQLite queries and Python scripts to parse data of interest. We have discussed several suggestions and examples of queries and scripts throughout this book. Python is one of the best solutions because it is free and we have full access to its libraries. One thing to keep in mind is that our scripts have to be updated frequently to keep up with application updates. Also, make sure that your encoding schemas are correct to prevent application artifacts from being missed or not interpreted correctly.

In addition to Python scripts, free parsers that support application extraction already exist. WhatsApp Extract is a free tool for both Android and iOS that will extract WhatsApp application data from devices. Often, this free tool will extract more data than the commercial solutions, depending on the permissions the user allocated during installation. Others, such as Mari DeGrazia (http://az4n6.blogspot.in/p/downloads.html), Adrian Leong (https://github.com/cheeky4n6monkey/4n6-scripts), Sarah Edwards (https://github.com/mac4n6), and Alexis Brignoni (https://github.com/abrignoni) have developed scripts to parse applications, recover deleted data from SQLite free pages, decode Base64, and more. We recommend using what is already available before developing your own.