Forensic Articles
What an image or audio file gives away, and how far each forensic test can actually be trusted.
How to verify if an image is real
The open-source workflow for checking whether a photo is genuine and in context, reverse search, geolocation and metadata, and where each step quietly fails.
Read guide ↗Does a screenshot or upload remove a photo's metadata?
Uploading a photo usually strips its EXIF, and a screenshot goes further, replacing the original metadata with your own device and the current time. What survives, and what it means.
Read guide ↗PRNU camera sensor-noise fingerprinting, explained
PRNU is the noise fingerprint every camera sensor leaves in its photos. Where the fingerprint comes from, how a match is declared, and why it identifies the device, not the model.
Read guide ↗How to tell what camera took a photo
Metadata names the camera until someone strips or fakes it. What sensor-noise fingerprinting can recover when it is gone, and why it is a lab tool, not a web one.
Read guide ↗What does EXIF data actually reveal about your photo?
EXIF metadata can reveal the camera, lens, date, editing software and GPS location of a photo. What each field tells an investigator, and why none of it is proof on its own.
Read guide ↗How to detect Photoshop manipulation
Detecting Photoshop means two different things, confirming a file was opened in Adobe software, which is easy, and proving its content was deliberately manipulated, which no single test can do. How an analyst fuses weak signals into a finding.
Read guide ↗What is Error Level Analysis (ELA)?
Error Level Analysis resaves a JPEG at a known quality and highlights regions whose compression error does not match the rest. How the technique works step by step, and why it is a lead rather than a verdict.
Read guide ↗How to tell if a photo has been edited
No single test proves a photo was edited. The signals a forensic analyst actually checks, from metadata to error levels to cloning, and why each is a lead, not a verdict.
Read guide ↗How accurate is camera fingerprinting (PRNU)?
Camera fingerprinting is highly accurate on original files and much weaker on shared ones. The real-world numbers, where the match collapses, and when a PRNU result is worth trusting.
Read guide ↗Can EXIF data be faked?
EXIF tags reveal a photo's camera, time and GPS, but every field can be rewritten in seconds. How to spot forged metadata, and when to trust it.
Read guide ↗Is Error Level Analysis reliable?
What Error Level Analysis can and cannot show in a photo, why its own creator calls the results inconclusive, and when a bright ELA map means nothing.
Read guide ↗How reliable is photo forensics?
What digital photo forensics can and cannot prove, why every method is a probability not a verdict, and when a forensic result is actually worth trusting.
Read guide ↗What can forensics learn from a file?
A field guide to what a photo, video or audio file can reveal, when it was made, where, by what device, whether it was edited, and how far to trust each answer.
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