A module declaring a dependency its command does not provide made
_ordered_modules() give up on the whole run, so a single wrong declaration
in a module scoped to several commands turned a forensic analysis into
zero executed modules with one warning to explain it.
Drop only the modules that cannot run: the one with the unavailable
dependency, and anything depending on it. Each gets its own warning naming
the module missing a dependency and the dependency it is missing, and the
remaining modules run in the same stable topological order as before. A
cycle in the dependency graph is still a programming error and still stops
the run.
A plugin with a settings class already names itself in `plugin_name`;
passing the name again to plugin_data_folder() repeats it and can drift.
Add a `data_folder()` class method on MVTPluginSettings which returns
plugin_data_folder() for the class's validated plugin name (works on the
class and on an instance); plugin_data_folder(name) stays as the function
underneath for plugins without a settings class.
Plugins had no sanctioned place to keep the data they persist, so the
plugin configuration documentation suggested a CACHE_FOLDER setting
defaulting to ~/.cache/example-plugin. That is a Linux convention which
is wrong on macOS, nothing expands or creates it, and it turns a path
into a setting a user can be asked to configure.
Add plugin_data_folder(), which returns the folder a plugin should use
for caches, downloaded artifacts, synchronization state or anything
else it writes to disk, and creates it if it is missing. The plugin
name is validated before anything is created, so a name holding a path
separator raises an error and leaves no folder behind, and calling the
function again returns the same folder with its contents untouched.
The folder sits under plugin-data rather than under the plugins folder
which holds the settings files. On macOS the configuration folder and
the data folder are the same directory, so reusing the plugins name
would leave each plugin's data folder in among the settings files.
Both the plugin-data folder and the folder of each plugin are created
with 0700 permissions. MVT is a forensic tool, and what a plugin keeps
there, such as API responses or sample metadata, is private by default.
The path is resolved on every call, as the configuration folder already
is, so it follows the current environment rather than whatever it was
when MVT was imported.
The documentation now points plugins at the helper, and the example
settings class carries a plain integer setting in place of its cache
folder.
Plugin packages need somewhere to keep their own settings, but MVT
rewrites its config.yaml with only the fields it knows about, so any
foreign section is dropped. Add MVTPluginSettings, a pydantic-settings
base class that gives each plugin its own file under the MVT config
folder and its own MVT_PLUGIN_<NAME>_ environment variable namespace.
Settings resolve from constructor arguments, then the environment, then
the plugin file, then the field defaults. Saving skips the values the
environment currently supplies, so credentials passed as environment
variables are not copied to disk, and writes through a private temporary
file so a settings file is never partially written or briefly readable
by other users.
The Development section holds more than one page and will grow further,
so give it its own directory. development.md becomes development/index.md,
which keeps its published URL, and the custom CLI command page moves
alongside it.
Update the nav, the cross-link between the two pages, and the README
link to the custom command documentation, which is now published at
/development/custom_commands/.
* Load installed module packages via entry points
Python packages can already register custom CLI commands which load
automatically, but custom modules still require --load-module or the
MVT_CUSTOM_MODULES environment variable on every invocation.
Add an mvt.modules entry-point group so installed packages can register
forensic modules which load automatically into every module-running
check-* command. An entry point resolves to an iterable of MVTModule
subclasses, or a callable returning one. Broken entry points are
skipped with a warning so a faulty package cannot break MVT.
* Record the source of loaded modules for auditability
Now that installed module packages load automatically, record where every
module came from:
- --list-modules groups the available modules by source, one line per
source with the modules comma-separated: MVT itself with its version,
each installed package with its version and VCS commit when recorded
(PEP 610 direct_url.json), and each --load-module/MVT_CUSTOM_MODULES
file with its SHA-256 hash.
- Commands log one line per module source with its version or hash and
the modules loaded from it, so command.log records exactly which
modules ran and where they came from.
- Make init_logging() idempotent: a loaded module package importing an
MVT CLI module would previously add a second console handler and
duplicate every console log line.
* Route loaded module logging under the mvt.ext namespace
Modules loaded from installed packages or file paths live outside the
mvt logger hierarchy, so their log records never reach MVT's console
and file handlers and instead fall through to logging.lastResort:
alerts print as bare unformatted lines and INFO messages are dropped
entirely.
Add get_module_logger() and use it everywhere module loggers are
created. Built-in mvt.* modules keep their existing logger names, and
everything external is parented under a dedicated mvt.ext namespace so
records reach the handlers and external names can never collide with
MVT's internal logger tree. File-path modules are named after their
file (mvt.ext.<stem>) instead of the mangled internal import name.
Document a naming convention for community module packages:
distribute as mvt-plugin-<name> with import package mvt_plugin_<name>,
including the publishing organization in the name. The prefix is
advisory (loading is by entry point, and it is no mark of
authenticity), but conforming packages get a cleaner logger namespace:
the mvt_plugin_ prefix is stripped, so mvt_plugin_amnesty_custom logs
as mvt.ext.amnesty_custom.
* Add WhatsappContacts module to extract WhatsApp disappearing messages state
WhatsApp on iOS stores the disappearing messages timer for 1:1 chats on
the contact records in ContactsV2.sqlite, not in ChatStorage.sqlite. Add
a new WhatsappContacts module which extracts contact records from this
database, including phone numbers, WhatsApp and LID identifiers, and the
per-contact disappearing messages duration, and emits a timeline event
when a disappearing messages timer was set.
The database is often missing from incremental backups, so the module
logs a clear warning and returns no results instead of failing. Columns
are selected based on the actual table schema to tolerate changes across
WhatsApp versions, and if the disappearing messages column is absent the
state is reported as unknown rather than off.
The test fixture is a synthetic ContactsV2.sqlite with fictional
contacts, stored under the backup file ID derived from the WhatsApp
shared app group domain.
* Fix InteractionC contact resolution and resolve WhatsApp LIDs to contacts
The two primary InteractionC queries contained a SQL syntax error in
their direction CASE expression (a double column alias), so they always
failed and the module silently fell back to a reduced query without the
recipient join. As a result outgoing messages were serialized with no
counterpart at all ("from None (None)"). Fix the syntax so recipient
names and identifiers are extracted again, and normalize the raw 0/1
direction values from the fallback queries to INCOMING/OUTGOING.
WhatsApp identifies chat peers in interactionC.db by LID and stores the
peer LID in the domain identifier, which InteractionC could not map to a
person. Declare a dependency on the WhatsappContacts module and resolve
sender, recipient and domain identifiers (LID, JID or phone number)
against the WhatsApp contacts database, adding resolved phone number and
name fields to WhatsApp records.
Rewrite the timeline serialization to use the resolved values, fall back
to the chat peer from the domain identifier when no recipient was
recorded, label the local user instead of printing None, and include the
message direction and group name.
* Add timeline events for all WhatsApp contact timestamps
Extract ZABOUTEXPIRATIONTIMESTAMP and emit a timeline event for each
timestamp stored on a WhatsApp contact record: disappearing messages
timer changes, "about" text changes and scheduled expiry, and contact
record updates. ContactsV2.sqlite stores no other date attributes in
any released schema version.
* Add first and last interaction timeline events for WhatsApp chats
Extract one record per ZWACHATSESSION with the first and last stored
message dates, the session's own last-message date, the group creation
date and message counts. Each chat produces chat_first_message and
chat_last_message timeline events, and groups a group_created event.
The session last-message date is preferred over the newest stored
message because it survives message deletion.
* Resolve WhatsApp LID chat identifiers via the LID pair table
Recent WhatsApp versions key 1:1 chat sessions by an opaque LID rather
than the contact's phone number. Extract the ZWAPHONENUMBERLIDPAIR
table from the dedicated LID.sqlite database (or from ChatStorage
itself in versions that store it there) and use it to populate
partner_resolved_phone_number on chat session records and in timeline
events, without requiring the often-missing ContactsV2.sqlite. Each
pair is also extracted as a record and produces a lid_pair_recorded
timeline event marking when the association was learned.
* Reduce duplicate InteractionC timeline events
The interaction record's creation date normally trails its start date
by milliseconds, so serializing both nearly doubled the timeline with
duplicate entries. Only emit the creation date when it diverges from
the start date by more than an hour, with explicit wording, since a
record created long after its event indicates backfill by sync,
restore or tampering.
Per-contact aggregate dates from ZCONTACTS repeat on every interaction
row of the same contact and carried that row's message text. Serialize
them with contact-centric data strings instead, so timeline
de-duplication collapses them into one first/last-seen event per
contact.
* fix(ios): scan Safari profile databases for history and browser state
Safari profiles (iOS 17 and later) keep their own databases under
Library/Safari/Profiles/<UUID>/, but SafariHistory and SafariBrowserState
only ever looked at the default profile's Library/Safari/History.db and
Library/Safari/BrowserState.db.
On a device where browsing happens inside a profile, MVT silently skipped
that history and still reported no detections, so an indicator only ever
visited within a profile went unnoticed.
Both modules now also match Library/Safari/Profiles/*/ in backups and in
filesystem dumps. No helper changes were needed: the Manifest.db lookup
already translates "*" into a SQL LIKE wildcard, and the filesystem lookup
already globs.
Found while examining an encrypted iOS 26.5.2 backup that contained 14
per-profile History.db files under
AppDomain-com.apple.mobilesafari::Library/Safari/Profiles/<UUID>/.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix(ios): scope Safari redirects to history database
---------
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Co-authored-by: Janik Besendorf <janik@besendorf.org>
Donncha Ó Cearbhaill