Sharpening Your Tools

Abstract

This article presents our experience updating the high-performance Digital forensics tool BE (bulk_extractor) a decade after its initial release. Between 2018 and 2022, we updated the program from C++98 to C++17. We also performed a complete code refactoring and adopted a unit test framework. DF tools must be frequently updated to keep up with changes in the ways they are used. A description of updates to the bulk_extractor tool serves as an example of what can and should be done.