Recipe Difficulty: Medium

Python Version: 2.7

Operating System: Linux

In this recipe, we learn how to recurse through the filesystem and create an active file listing. Oftentimes, one of the first questions we, as the forensic examiner, are often asked is "What data is on the device?". An active file listing comes in handy here. Creating a file listing of loose files is a very straightforward task in Python. However, this will be slightly more complicated because we are working with a forensic image rather than loose files. This recipe will be a cornerstone for future scripts as it will allow us to recursively access and process every file in the image. As you may have noticed, this chapter's recipes are building upon each other as each function we develop it becomes necessary to explore the image further. In a similar way, this recipe will become integral in future recipes to iterate through directories and process files.