CAINE 3.0 Review – Linux Forensics

CAINE (Computer Aided INvestigative Environment, but also named after CSI: Miami ’s head of crime lab Horatio Caine) is a hyperspecialised Linux distro. As its full name implies, it’s aimed at digital forensic practitioners. The latest edition is CAINE 3.0 (codename Quasar), based on Ubuntu 12.04 and Linux kernel 3.2 but with the GNOME 2 fork, MATE, instead of Unity as its desktop environment. Unfortunately, the 1.3GB live DVD image isn’t a hybrid image and it doesn’t work out of the box with UNetbootin either. Writing the ISO to a USB stick and making it bootable is possible, but needs some fiddling. The installer, though, will be familiar to Ubuntu users, as it’s Canonical’s easy-to-use Ubiquity.