Verifier-gated evidence receipts
Every forensic claim
is a signed receipt.
OATH is an autonomous DFIR agent that wraps mainstream forensic tools (EZ Tools, Sleuthkit, Volatility 3, Hayabusa, plaso) in a cryptographic chain-of-custody layer. Every finding it ships is bound to the original-image SHA-256, signed with ed25519, and re-derivable on any examiner's laptop in under a minute. Hallucinations don't get suppressed — they get quarantined and shown on-screen.
arXiv:2505.19973
verifier-gated
no LLM at all
Same corpus, same image, same scoring rule. The deterministic-without-an-LLM number is the more interesting one: the architectural lift alone is worth +40 points before the LLM proposes anything.
How the chain holds
LLM proposes args, not code
The Custom MCP server exposes 11 typed forensic functions with closed schemas. The LLM emits a structured JSON of arguments — partition, pattern, filter — never executable Python. The script-generation failure class is gone.
Deterministic executor runs
OATH calls the underlying tool (fls, EvtxECmd,
RECmd, vol) with the LLM's args. Every byte
of stdout is BLAKE3-hashed; the canonical args are RFC-8785 JCS;
everything is signed with ed25519.
Verifier disposes
To ship a claim, the LLM cites a Notarized envelope by ID. The Witness Oath Verifier re-runs the bound tool and confirms the BLAKE3 of stdout matches. Mismatch → QUARANTINED (visible "suspected but unproven"). Drift → RALPH WIGGUM (visible re-proposal under a derived constraint).
Receipt ships with the finding
oath verify <envelope-id> re-derives any finding
from the original image on an examiner's laptop in under a minute.
No LLM. No API key. No MCP server boot. Pure Python.
What cannot replay does not exist.
Real run: CFReDS Data Leakage Case
A real Windows 7 image from NIST's CFReDS catalog. Scenario:
"Iaman Informant" accepts a bribe and exfiltrates confidential data via
USB, cloud, and email. Every typed function below ran against
cfreds_2015_data_leakage_pc.E01 (2,147,463,521 bytes,
SHA-256 e6365e44…) and produced a signed
envelope you can inspect.
Verify it yourself
Don't trust this page — verify locally. Every envelope JSON on this site
is committed to the OATH git repo. Install OATH on your own machine and
oath verify <envelope-id> re-derives the finding from
the original image bytes. Under a minute on commodity hardware.
# From a fresh git clone:
git clone https://github.com/GharsallahDev/oath && cd oath
# Install the local forensic toolchain:
bash scripts/install-tools.sh # macOS Apple Silicon
bash scripts/install-on-sift.sh # Linux forensic workstation
source .oath-tools/env.sh
# Mount the same image:
oath mount path/to/cfreds_2015_data_leakage_pc.E01
# Re-derive ANY envelope from this site:
oath verify <envelope-id>