Netscape Email Viewer to Explore Email Storage File!
Netscape email client is a popular email client and at investigation point of view. This email client is supported well with SSL (secure sockets layer) protocol for securing the online communication; still it is part of various cybercrimes and thus investigators needs to interrogate its data files. Netscape email client belongs to the Mozilla family and just like Thunderbird and SeaMonkey applications stores the emails in a variant of MBOX file. This MBOX file is sometimes known as “Unix format” as it was formerly developed for UNIX. Separate MBOX files are created for each folder and each file carries the emails belonging to that folder. Netscape email client is an important email client in context of investigation. It becomes important to know about the file formats used and to retain these files and analyze them.
Significance of MBOX in Investigations
MBOX file is the local mail storage file adapted by UNIX pedigree email clients and various cross-platform email clients. It has several variants like; .mbx, mboxo, mboxrd, mboxcl, and mboxcl2. MBOX file basically is a simple flat text file available in string of concatenated email messages. It starts with “From” header of message and comprises of all emails in continuation. It is quite difficult to inspect this file unless it is viewable in presentable form. An advance Netscape Email Viewer is necessary to bring this MBOX text file in an aligned pattern to view the email messages along with the attachments and headers. As these files are available in text format, investigation on it can be an easy task. This is because one can easily search using specific key in a text file.
Netscape Email MBOX Location
Netscape Messenger Files can be viewed in \Program Files\Netscape\Users\<User Account>\Mail path. The MBOX files are available in this location by default, but the location can differ as per user’s settings. While searching for the files, MBOX files will be available in this location and appears without any file extension. It can also appear with .mbx or .mbox file extension in some versions of Netscape. Different mailboxes are saved with its mailbox name like; Inbox will be saved as INBOX and Sent item folder will be saved as SENT.
How to Analyze Netscape MBOX File?
Email storage file of any email client is an important source of evidence for investigators. Netscape MBOX file is also the prime source of evidence, but unfortunately this file cannot be viewed without the email platform. Netscape Email Viewer is one of the best platforms to view Netscape MBOX files. It allows viewing MBOX file emails with attributes and attachments to be analyzed thoroughly. This viewer is a standalone application and does not require any email platform to be installed in the system.
