UAC (Unix-like Artifacts Collector) is a portable incident response and forensic acquisition tool for collecting system artefacts from Linux and a wide range of other Unix-like environments.
It is particularly useful for live-response situations where an investigator needs a repeatable collection process without installing a substantial agent or resolving additional dependencies on the target system. Collection behaviour is controlled by YAML profiles and artefact definitions, allowing investigators to perform focused triage or broader forensic acquisition.
Its lightweight approach also makes UAC useful for servers, appliances, NAS systems, network devices and other environments where deploying a conventional forensic suite may be impractical.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Runs directly from a shell without requiring installation or additional runtime dependencies.
- Uses customizable YAML profiles and artefact definitions.
- Respects the order of volatility during evidence collection.
- Collects information about running processes, including processes without an executable remaining on disk.
- Calculates hashes for processes and executable files.
- Collects file and directory status information for forensic bodyfiles.
- Gathers system information, user data, configuration files and logs.
- Supports volatile-memory acquisition on Linux using multiple approaches.
- Can transfer collected output to supported cloud storage platforms.
- Runs on AIX, ESXi, FreeBSD, Linux, macOS, NetBSD, NetScaler, OpenBSD and Solaris.
- Can operate on NAS appliances, OpenWrt devices and other systems with a compatible shell.
Website: github.com/tclahr/uac
Support:
Developer: Thiago Lahr
License: Apache License 2.0
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Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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