Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Analysis of errors in exif metadata on mobile devices

  • Published:
Multimedia Tools and Applications Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Nowadays the number of cameras integrated in mobile phones is growing very fast, making it essential to design new specific forensic analysis techniques aimed towards the pictures created with these devices. Most of these phones automatically add relevant Exif metadata in the process of image acquisition. This metadata, even if it is vulnerable to tampering, can be very helpful for a variety of forensic analysis techniques. That is why the existence of efficient, robust and specialized tools is a necessity. These should allow metadata to be extracted in a consistent, fast and sound way. Besides, metadata extraction must never manipulate the image and it needs to take into account possible departures from the Exif specification, including the insertion of the metadata in the image acquisition process by the makers, as well as any modification, whether malicious or not. This paper will show the multiple anomalies in the Exif specification we have found during our study, which can produce serious problems in classical tools for the extraction of image metadata, including crashes and wrong results, and even interoperability problems among different devices. We will also show some anomalies found in the operation of different well-known forensic tools.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Avcibas I, Memon N, Sankur B (2003) Steganalysis using image quality metrics. IEEE Trans Image Process 12(2):221–229. doi:10.1109/TIP.2002.807363

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  2. Bayram S, Sencar HT, Memon N (2006) Improvements on source camera-model identification based on CFA interpolation. Proceedings of WG 119 international on digital forensics

  3. Bayram S, Sencar HT, Memon N, Avcibas I (2005) Source camera identification based on CFA interpolation. ICIP 2005, pp 1–4

  4. Boutell M, Luo J (2004) Photo classification by integrating image content and camera metadata, ICPR 04. Proceedings of the pattern recognition 17th international conference on ICPR 04, vol 4, pp 901–904. doi:10.1109/ICPR.2004.1333918

  5. Boutell M, Luo J (2005) Beyond pixels: exploiting camera metadata for photo classification. Pattern Recog 38(6):935–946. doi:10.1016/j.patcog.2004.11.013

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Chamlawi R, Khan A (2010) Digital image authentication and recovery: employing integer transform based information embedding and extraction. Inf Sci 180(24):4909–4928. doi:10.1016/j.ins.2010.08.039

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  7. Chang C (2002) A steganographic method based upon JPEG and quantization table modification. Inf Sci 141(1–2):123–138. doi:10.1016/S0020-0255(01)00194-3

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  8. Choi KS (2006) Source camera identification using footprints from lens aberration. Proc SPIE 6069(852), 60,690J–60,690J–8. doi:10.1117/12.649775

  9. Committee S (2010) Exchangeable image file for digital still cameras: Exif version 2.3. http://www.cipa.jp/english/hyoujunka/kikaku/pdf/DC-008-2010_E.pdf

  10. Exsoftware: photoinfoex (2007) . http://www.photoinfoex.com/

  11. Geradts ZJ, Bijhold J, Kieft M, Kurosawa K, Kuroki K, Saitoh N (2001) Methods for identification of images acquired with digital cameras. Proc SPIE 4232:505–512. doi:10.1117/12.417569

    Google Scholar 

  12. Gloe T, Kirchner M, Winkler A, Böhme R (2007) Can we trust digital image forensics? In: Proceedings of the 15th international conference on multimedia, ACM Press, pp 7–86. doi:10.1145/1291233.1291252

  13. Hamilton E (2004) JPEG File interchange format. Interchange 81:467–490. http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/54

    Google Scholar 

  14. Harvey P (2005) ExifTool. http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/%7Ephil/exiftool/

  15. Luka J, Fridrich J, Goljan M (2006) Digital camera identification from sensor pattern noise. IEEE Trans Inf Forensic Secur 1(2):205–214. doi:10.1109/TIFS.2006.873602

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Lyons M (2001) EXIF Information reader. http://www.tawbaware.com/exifread.htm

  17. Raskin A (2007) Exif viewer 1.81. https://addons.mozilla.org/es-es/firefox/addon/exif-viewer/

  18. Romero NL, Chornet VVGCG, Cobos JS, Carot AASCS, Centellas FC, Mendez MC (2008) Recovery of descriptive information in images from digital libraries by means of EXIF metadata. Libr Hi Tech 26(2):302–315. doi:10.1108/07378830810880388

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Tesic J (2005) Metadata Practices for consumer photos. IEEE Multimedia 12(3):86–92

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Thing VLL, Ng KY, Chang EC (2010) Live memory forensics of mobile phones. Digital Investigation 7(1):S74–S82. doi:10.1016/j.diin.2010.05.010

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Tsai HH (2007) Color image watermark extraction based on support vector machines. Inf Sci 177(2):550–569. doi:10.1016/j.ins.2006.05.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Van Lanh T, Chong KS, Emmanuel S, Kankanhalli MS (2007) A Survey on digital camera image forensic methods. IEEE Int Conf Multimed Expo 2007:16–19. doi:10.1109/ICME.2007.4284575

    Google Scholar 

  23. Wandel M (2010) Exif Jpeg header manipulation tool. www.sentex.net/mwandel/jhead/

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Group of Analysis, Security and Systems (GASS), Department of Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence (DISIA), School of Computer Science, Office 431, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), Calle Profesor José García Santesmases s/n, Ciudad Universitaria, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Ana Lucila Sandoval Orozco, David Manuel Arenas González & Luis Javier García Villalba

  2. School of Computing, Office S129A, University of Kent, Cornwallis South Building, Canterbury CT2 7NF, UK

    Julio Hernández-Castro

Authors
  1. Ana Lucila Sandoval Orozco
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. David Manuel Arenas González
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Luis Javier García Villalba
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Julio Hernández-Castro
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Luis Javier García Villalba.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sandoval Orozco, A.L., Arenas González, D.M., García Villalba, L.J. et al. Analysis of errors in exif metadata on mobile devices. Multimed Tools Appl 74, 4735–4763 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-013-1837-6

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-013-1837-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation