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Email Header Analyzer

Verified Solution to Analyze Email Header in Forensics

Email Header Analysis Forensics – Everything You Need To Know

Email is the most necessary communication tool these days to send/receive business mail. Unfortunately, it has also become the primary medium for conducting cyber-attacks. However, the culprit behind those attacks can be easily found by examining email header alone, especially via email header analyzer.

In fact, when investigation is involved, the term ‘Email header’ act as a goldmine for the investigators. That’s because it gives them clues and helps trace illegal and unauthorized activities.

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Useful Information About Message Headers Before Analysis

Undoubtedly, the email header contains a lot of information, but, most of them are not displayed to the user. Not directly. Yes, you can only see a few components such as From, To, CC, BCC, and Subject fields. But the email header analyzer provides 360 overview.

In other words, full email headers are hard to find if you don’t know where to look. So, let’s get familiar with the steps for email header analysis in different email clients.

What a Email Header Contains? - Know Here

Email header play an important role in the identification of sender & receiver of the email and other additional information related to the email message. The analysis of email header allow the investigator to identify the following informations:

Generally the header field of the email is written from bottom to top. So the forensic email header analysis from bottom to top help the investigator obtain to data in the order they are occurred including the sender and receiver informatio. The email header analyzer work in same order and provides all fields analysis.

Email Header Analysis of Different Email Clients

Email Client Headers

Analyze Message Header  Gmail Email Header Analysis

Open a particular email in Gmail. Then, click on three vertical dots and press ‘Show original’ to view all the information in the email header.

file option

Email Header Analysis  View Outlook Email Header

You can perform Outlook PST file forensics to help investigators obtain sender details and other email related informations. To get email header properties of Microsoft Outlook follow the steps given below:

  • Open the suspected email message of which you want to check the email header and select the file menu.
    file option
  • Select the Properties option from the bottom of the File tab.
    outlook properties
  • After selecting the option new Properties window will open from which you can access the Internet Headers section to view email headers.
    outlook internet header

email header analyzer  View Apple Mail Header

To start with Apple mail forensics and email header analysis, Click on a specific email on Apple Mail. Then, go to the View tab >> Message >> Raw Source to view the email header information.

Message Header Forensics

Email Header Forensic Analysis  View Outlook Web App Email Header

Open an email on Outlook. Then, press More and finally click on View message details.

Message Header Forensics

Email Header analyzer options  View Lotus Notes Header

When a user send the message using Lotus Notes the server adds an unique field in the header data. A user cannot see this field through the normal email message view. The Lotus Notes NSF file forensics process help the investigators to identify email spamming, spoofing and the actual rout of the email message. To perform email header forensics of Lotus Notes data, please follow the below process:

  • Open the email message of which you want to examine email headers.
  • Now select the show option from the view tab.
    easy to analyze email header
  • After that through the Page Source option obtained through the Show menu user can easily view email headers of the selected message.
    Lotus Notes header

Understanding the purpose of each header field carefully will help the help the investigators to identify the evidence during the cyber crime investigation.

Email Header Forensic Analysis  Retrieve Thunderbird Mail Header

Since Thunderbird is one of the leading email applications used to share email messages between the users, the chance of email crimes through this platform is also very high. Any manipulation or discrepancy of the email content can be easily identified by the careful email header forensics while performing Thunderbird forensics. Before the analysis, understand how to get email header from the Thunderbird application.

  • Open the email message for you want to check email header.
  • Select the Message Source option from the View tab.
    email message header analyzer
  • Which will provide the email header information related to the specific email message.
    Thunderbird header

Entourage Email Message Header Forensics View Entourage Header

Entourage is an open source email client also known as personal information manager commonly used for communicate email messages between the email users. Follow the steps given below to perform Entourage Forensics and examine email headers for extracting the email related informations.

  • First open the email message for view email header data associated with it.
  • From the menu bar select the message option. Which provide you drop down menu with a number options.
    Entourage option
  • From the drop down menu click on the Internet Headers through which you will get full mail header information.
    Entourage header pt-2 pb-4

View Email Headers Access Eudora Email Header

Eudora is an open source desktop based email client. The careful study of Eudora email header field helps to access the complete information of the email messages such as sender receiver address, the server that handles the sharing etc. during Eudora email forensics.

  • Double click on the email message for which you want to analyze email headers.
  • It will shows the email message with partial header information.
    phishing email header analysis
  • Click on the BLAH BLAH BLAH icon to get full email header data of Eudora email.
    Eudora header

Email Header Forensics View IncrediMail Header

IncrediMail is an advanced email application which provides great feature experience while working with it. It also allows users to work in offline mode with great protection from spam and fraud emails. To get email header data during the forensic analysis of IncrediMail mailbox follow the below process.

  • Open the email message of which you need to examine the email header.
  • Click on the file menu and select the properties option.
    IncrediMail option
  • To examine email headers of the IncrediMail, go to the Details tab from the properties window.
    IncrediMail header

Using this method, a user can easily open and examine the IncrediMail header data manually.

Email Header Forensics View Email Headers of The Bat!

The Bat! is a desktop based email application known for its security, interface customization and filtering capability. Whenever an email communication is take place through The Bat!, the predefined server append unique field to header of the email. By the careful forensic analysis of The Bat! mailbox, you can get all the desired information through forensic email header analysis.

  • Open the messages of which you want to read email header properties.
  • Right click on the message and select the View Source option from the Message section.
    the bat
  • A dialog box will appear to take the permission to download the entire message to view the its exact source.
    analyze email header
  • After that a new window will open with the entire message source of selected message wich allows to view email headers of The Bat.
    the bat header

By following the above instructions you will be able to open and view the header information. However, sometimes it becomes difficult to analyze them. Let’s see why.

Common Hurdles Faced During Email Header Analysis

As you already know that the email header displays only a few components to a user. But, the staggering fact is that those can be easily forged! In cyber security terminology, it’s called Email Spoofing.

In this kind of cyber attack, the hacker manipulates the email header in such a way that the client software displays the fraudulent sender address. As a result, it makes it challenging to distinguish whether the sender's address is genuine or not.

Furthermore, you can’t recognize a fraudulent email address just by looking at the email header. It calls for special equipment, preferably a professional email header analyzer tool, to examine and find out who the actual sender of the email is.

Rise Above the Challenge of Email Header Analysis

To tackle today’s advanced hackers and the challenges involved in investigating emails, our IT team has come up with an ultimate Email Forensics Tool. It is designed dedicatedly to examine and analyze emails. With the help of the software, you can easily view all the components of the email header (regardless of email client) and analyze it at the same time.

It shows the MIME version, Message ID, Content type, CC, BCC, From, Sender address, etc. in detail. Therefore, tracing the digital footprints of the actual sender of the email becomes easier.

Best Email Header Analyzer

But, Why This is The First Choice of Investigation Officers?

While analyzing an email, there are a lot of challenges that come in the way in various forms. For instance, when an email comes for an investigation, it’s not necessarily in a readable format. It can be encrypted or corrupted or even deleted from an evidence file. And, that’s when the need for the email header analyzer tool arises to better examine and investigate the email.

Also, MailXaminer is not only helpful for analyzing email headers but is also capable of performing other tasks. Such as:

Final Words

In most cyber-crime scenes, email is considered digital evidence and further handed over to cyber experts for investigation. The first thing investigators look into is email header analysis since it contains a lot of information about the path that the message has traversed.

Though email headers carry crucial data, using a specialized email header analyzer tool is recommended to gather and preserve evidence in the form of reports.