What is Email Header & What is Email Header Analysis ?
In this blog we are going to discuss about email header analysis forensics in brief. Have a look and read full blog to get more information.
At the time of receiving an email, most of the time we only pay attention to the email address, subject, and body of the email message. But there is a lot more to pay attention to which can be profitable for the user. The email header section contains a lot of important. A majority of people read email headers if someone suspects an email is a spoof or to view the routing information of that particular email. This blog will help users know what is email header analysis and how to read email headers.
What is Email Header – Information
The email header of an email consists of conveying information of the email message such as the sender’s address, the receiver’s address, date, Cc, Bcc, and subject. Also, the header is always attach to each email. As it provides the information related to the actual source, hops, and end of the source.
It also contains various other attributes as well. Such as Spam Score, Return Path, Public Signature, etc.
How Email Header Analysis Helps Forensically?
As mentioned above Email Headers contain important information about the origin and path of an email. It always includes the sender’s IP address, internet service provider, email client, and location as well. This information is enough to be use for blocking future emails from the sender or to determine the legitimacy of a suspicious email (in spam mailing case). Users can easily use the originating IP to find the original sender.
Sources of Forensically Examining Email Headers
There are multiple sources from where user can get the email headers. Like:
- Gmail
- Yahoo
- Hotmail
- AOL etc.
Email header is the only source of information from where we can easily access the sender’s detail. As every message that receiver receives on its end contain two parts, the message part and the header Part.
At the time of checking the email header part, it gives all the relevant information regarding to evidence like who sent the email to whom and using which route etc. Therefore, these resources make the forensic analysis an explored view.
Relevance of Headers and their Components
Email header forensics analysis basically indicates the examination done on the email message body and the source and path followed by it. It always includes the identification of the genuine sender, time, or recipient of the emails. It can bring out candid evidence from various things. Let’s have a look at which components are helpful for header forensics.
Which Components are Helpful for Email Header Forensics?
X-Apparently-To- It will reveal the recipient’s email address at the time of the investigation. Generally, it is referred to as “BCC, CC, or To” and is not restrict to “To”.
Delivery To: It always shows the address of the auto-mailer.
Return-Path: This field has been use for the bounces of email messages. In case if the mail server is sending the message and it cannot be delivered it will be shown here.
Received-SPF: During email header forensics, this field shows the information of the email service used for sending emails. It also has an ID number which is important for log examination. For determining the validity of an email. And, in case of unavailability of the ID, the email must have been spoofed.
Message ID: It is a unique identification ID that refers to the genuine time of the emails and version of the message. It is highly important to know if investigators want to know whether spoofing has been done to the email or not.
MIME Version: This means Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions and is an Internet Standard that extends the format of the message.
Content-type: It will show the type of content or format used for the message like; XLML, Text, or HTML.
X-Mailer: It displays the email client which is use for message sending.
X-Originating-IP & Received: It is crucial for tracing the IP address which has been used for sending the email. This is a very important message when it comes to the email header forensic analysis as it has to be examine from where the email has arrive.
DKIM – Signature: This stores the signature of an email. Also, all key-fetching information in simple “tag=value” syntax has been store here. This field is also crucial to validate the domain name and identity allied to the message via cryptographic authentication.
Why Professional Guidance is Important in Analysis?
Analyzing Email Header Forensics is not an easy task. It takes a lot of practice and deep knowledge for performing the task. So, it is better to learn from India’s best Cyber Forensic Trainer. Anuraag Singh is a person who has deep knowledge in this field. He is serving for the last 21 years in this Industry.
He is an experienced and well-known Cybercrime investigator and Cyber forensics expert having great knowledge. Also, he is an asset to the Indian Law Enforcement, assisting it from 2007.
Anuraag Singh was also awarded and praised by the Police officials and the government itself, for his efforts and contribution to stop Cybercrime in India. So, for he is best person for taking guidance in Email header analysis forensics.
