2014 Autopsy Module Development Contest

 

Basis Technology is again sponsoring an Autopsy Module Development Contest.  The goal is to encourage developers to write Autopsy modules instead of stand-alone tools.  Writing new functionality as Autopsy modules makes users happy because they don’t have to jump between tools and it makes developers happy because they get to ignore details about file system, image formats, and interfaces. Attendees of OSDFCon 2014 will vote on the winners, who will receive cash prizes.

The standard version of Autopsy comes with many powerful features, but it was designed to be a platform that others could build on top of.  Developers can write  ingest modules that focus on processing all of the drive data,  content viewer modules that focus on displaying a single file, report modules that focus on exporting data from the case,  or an external module that provides its own UI (similar to the timeline viewer in Autopsy).

Prizes

* First Prize: $1500
* Second Prize: 500
* Third Prize: $250

Getting Started

Refer to the issue tracker for feature request ideas:

https://github.com/sleuthkit/autopsy/issues?labels=Feature+Request&page=1&state=open

Refer to the Autopsy Developer’s Guide for instructions on writing modules:

http://sleuthkit.org/autopsy/docs/api-docs/3.1/

Refer to this blog post on writing modules with Python

http://www.basistech.com/python-autopsy-module-tutorial-1-the-file-ingest-module/

Guidelines

  1. The Autopsy modules must provide value in a forensics use case.
  2. The module must be released as open source software by the submission deadline under one of the licenses approved by the Open Source Initiative.
  3. By submitting an entry, you declare that you have the right to license and submit the module.
  4. The contest organizers will test the module before the conference to verify that it operates as stated.
  5. You must either give a 5 minute presentation and demo at the 5th Annual Open Source Digital Forensics Conference or submit a 5 minute video. If you cannot attend the conference, the video must be submitted by October 27, 2014.
  6. In order to collect the cash prizes, winners need to provide a legal picture identification and bank account information within 30 days of notification. Bank payment transfer will be made within two weeks after winners are authenticated.
  7. Group entries are allowed; prizes will be paid to the person designated by the group.
  8. Employees of Basis Technology are not eligible.

How To Submit:

Submissions should be sent to autopsy-contest-2014@osdfcon.org no later than October 20, 2014. The submission should include the .NBM file, test data to demo the module, and answers to the following questions:

* Name of module

* Names of authors

* Minimum version of Autopsy required

* Description of what module does

* Will the authors attend OSDFCon?

* URL of where source code can be found

* License of source code

Contact:

Any contest specific questions should be sent to autopsy-contest-2014@osdfcon.org. Any Autopsy or development related questions should be sent to: sleuthkit-developers@lists.sourceforge.net

Disclaimer:

Prizes are considered taxable income. Basis Technology must report prizes over $600 to the IRS. If you win the first place prize, you will need to provide Basis Technology with your Tax ID.  If you do not feel comfortable doing this, we can donate it to a charity of your choice.