Versatile iPad forensic acquisition using the Apple Camera Connection Kit

The Apple iPad is a popular tablet device presented by Apple in early 2010. The idiosyncracies of this new portable device and the kind of data it may store open new opportunities in the field of computer forensics. Given that its design, both internal and external, is very similar to the iPhone, the current easiest way to obtain a forensic image is to install an SSH server and some tools, dump its internal storage and transfer it to a remote host via wireless networking. This approach may require up to 20 hours. In this paper, we present a novel approach that takes advantage of an undocumented feature so that it is possible to use a cheap iPad accessory, the Camera Connection Kit, to image the disk to an external hard drive attached via USB connection, greatly reducing the required time.