The problem
1. I had an encrypted Time Machine backup which was not used for months2. This backup was not on an official Apple Time Capsule or on a USB HDD, but on a WD MyCloud NAS
3. I needed files from this backup
4. After running out of time I only had SSH access to the macOS, no GUI
The struggle
By default, Time Machine is one of the best and easiest backup solution I have seen. As long as you stick to the default use case, where you have one active backup disk, life is pink and happy. But this was not my case.As always, I started to Google what shall I do. One of the first options recommended that I add the backup disk to Time Machine, and it will automagically show the backup snapshots from the old backup. Instead of this, it did not show the old snapshots but started to create a new backup. Panic button has been pressed, backup canceled, back to Google.
Other tutorials recommend to click on the Time Machine icon and pressing alt (Option) key, where I can choose "Browse other backup disks". But this did not list the old Time Machine backup. It did list the backup when selecting disks in Time Machine preferences, but I already tried and failed that way.
YAT (yet another tutorial) recommended to SSH into the NAS, and browse the backup disk, as it is just a simple directory where I can see all the files. But all the files inside where just a bunch of nonsense, no real directory structure.
YAT (yet another tutorial) recommended that I can just easily browse the content of the backup from the Finder by double-clicking on the sparse bundle file. After clicking on it, I can see the disk image on the left part of the Finder, attached as a new disk.
Well, this is true, but because of some bug, when you connect to the Time Capsule, you don't see the sparse bundle file. And I got inconsistent results, for the WD NAS, double-clicking on the sparse bundle did nothing. For the Time Capsule, it did work.
At this point, I had to leave the location where the backup was present, and I only had remote SSH access. You know, if you can't solve a problem, let's complicate things by restrict yourself in solutions.
Finally, I tried to check out some data forensics blogs, and besides some expensive tools, I could find the solution.
The solution
Finally, a blog post provided the real solution - hdiutil.The best part of hdiutil is that you can provide the read-only flag to it. This can be very awesome when it comes to forensics acquisition.
To mount any NAS via SMB:
mount_smbfs afp://<username>@<NAS_IP>/<Share_for_backup> /<mountpoint>
To mount a Time Capsule share via AFP:
mount_afp afp://any_username:password@<Time_Capsule_IP>/<Share_for_backup> /<mountpoint>
And finally this command should do the job:
hdiutil attach test.sparsebundle -readonly
It is nice that you can provide read-only parameter.
If the backup was encrypted and you don't want to provide the password in a password prompt, use the following:
printf '%s' 'CorrectHorseBatteryStaple' | hdiutil attach test.sparsebundle -stdinpass -readonly
Note: if you receive the error "resource temporarily unavailable", probably another machine is backing up to the device
And now, you can find your backup disk under /Volumes. Happy restoring!
Probably it would have been quicker to either enable the remote GUI, or to physically travel to the system and login locally, but that would spoil the fun.
Read more
- Pentest Tools For Android
- Hack Website Online Tool
- Top Pentest Tools
- Hack Tools Pc
- Hacker Tools Github
- Android Hack Tools Github
- Hacker Tools For Windows
- Hacker Tool Kit
- Hacking Tools
- Hacker Search Tools
- Hack Tools Github
- Free Pentest Tools For Windows
- Pentest Tools Download
- Physical Pentest Tools
- Pentest Tools Bluekeep
- Hacker Techniques Tools And Incident Handling
- Hack Tools Github
- What Are Hacking Tools
- Easy Hack Tools
- Hacker Tools Online
- Hack Tools 2019
- Hack Tools 2019
- Pentest Tools Nmap
- Hacking Tools Windows 10
- Bluetooth Hacking Tools Kali
- Hacking Tools Github
- Hack Tools Github
- Hack Tool Apk
- Hacker Tools For Ios
- Pentest Tools Linux
- Best Pentesting Tools 2018
- Hacker Hardware Tools
- Pentest Tools Github
- Hacker Tools For Pc
- Pentest Tools Download
- Hacking Tools Kit
- Hacking Tools Usb
- Hacking Tools For Windows Free Download
- How To Make Hacking Tools
- Hacker Hardware Tools
- Hack Tools For Mac
- Hack Tools Pc
- Hacker Tools Mac
- Hack Tools Pc
- Hacking Tools For Windows 7
- Hak5 Tools
- Hacker Tools For Windows
- Pentest Tools Framework
- Black Hat Hacker Tools
- Termux Hacking Tools 2019
- Hacker Tools For Pc
- Tools Used For Hacking
- Ethical Hacker Tools
- Pentest Tools Open Source
- Nsa Hacker Tools
- Hackers Toolbox
- Hacker Tools Online
- Hacking Tools Pc
- Hacking Tools Windows 10
- Hack Apps
- Hack App
- Pentest Tools For Mac
- Hacker Tools Mac
- Pentest Tools Review
- Pentest Tools Open Source
- Hacking Tools Github
- Hacker Tools Apk Download
- Hacking App
- Pentest Tools Free
- Hacker Security Tools
- Wifi Hacker Tools For Windows
- Pentest Tools For Windows
- Nsa Hack Tools
- Hacking Tools Free Download
- Pentest Tools Kali Linux
- Hacking Tools Mac
- What Are Hacking Tools
- Hacker Tools Windows
- Hacker Tools 2020
- Hack Tools For Games
- Pentest Tools For Android
- Hack Tools 2019
- Hack Tools For Pc
- Hack Rom Tools
- Hacking Tools Name
- Wifi Hacker Tools For Windows
- Hacker Tools For Mac
- Hack Tools For Games
- Underground Hacker Sites
- Pentest Tools Bluekeep
- Hacker Tools Apk Download
- Hacker Tools Software
- Hack Apps
- New Hack Tools
- Hacker Tools Software
- Beginner Hacker Tools
- Pentest Tools Linux
- Pentest Tools For Android
- Pentest Tools Github
- Hacker Tools Linux
- Hacking Tools Mac
- Hack Tools Github
- Hacker Hardware Tools
- What Are Hacking Tools
- Pentest Tools Alternative
- Hacker Tools Free Download
- Underground Hacker Sites
- Pentest Tools Github
- Hacker Tools Github
- Hacker Tools 2020
- Hack Tools
- Hacking Tools Kit
- Hacker Tools Apk Download
- Hackrf Tools
- Pentest Tools Github
- Game Hacking
- Hack App
- Install Pentest Tools Ubuntu
- Hacking Tools For Beginners
- Hackers Toolbox
- Hacker Tools List
- Pentest Tools
- Hacking Tools Name
- World No 1 Hacker Software
- Hack App
- Hack Tools Online
- World No 1 Hacker Software
- Underground Hacker Sites
- Hack Tools
- Hacker Tools
- Blackhat Hacker Tools
- Hacker Tools For Ios
No comments:
Post a Comment