CAINE vs Plaso
CAINE
caine-live.netPlaso
plaso.readthedocs.ioSide by side
| Figure | CAINE | Plaso |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 2 |
| Spec score · Digital Forensics Software | 8.8 (#3) | 8.5 (#4) |
| Extensibility | The project says its open distribution can be rebuilt into a differently branded version. | The project supports adding parsers, parser plugins, analysis plugins, output modules, tagging rules and automation scripts. |
| Licence | CAINE and its Windows-side tools are offered under the GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.1 or later, while bundled components retain their own licences. | PyPI and GitHub identify the project as Apache-2.0 licensed. |
| License | CAINE is free software under the GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.1 or later; included third-party software retains its own licenses. | The GitHub project page identifies the repository license as Apache-2.0. |
| Purpose | CAINE is an Italian GNU/Linux live distribution created as a digital forensics project. | Plaso is a Python-based engine used by tools to create super timelines or more targeted timelines for digital forensic analysis. |
| Support | The site provides a contact form for questions or problems and links to a user forum. | The project directs users to its discussion mailing list, Open Source DFIR Slack community, troubleshooting guide, and GitHub issue tracker; contributions are best effort. |
| What it does | CAINE is an Italian GNU/Linux live distribution designed as a computer-forensics environment. | Plaso is a Python engine that automatically builds super timelines from computer logs and files for digital-forensics analysis. |
Plans
In their own words
CAINE
CAINE is a free Italian GNU/Linux live distribution for digital forensics. It combines existing forensic programs as modules behind a graphical interface and is intended to support investigators through four investigation phases. The current listed download is CAINE 14.0 “LIGHTSTREAM,” dated 24/Mar/2025. That release sets block devices to read-only by default, while UnBlock can change the setting. rbfstab supports read-only mounting, and Mounter provides graphical mounting and unmounting. Included analysis utilities include Autopsy, FTK Imager, PhotoRec, TestDisk, hashcat, and memory-analysis scripts, alongside Windows incident-response tools such as Nirsoft utilities, WinAudit, FTK Imager, and USB Write Protector. CAINE supports disk imaging, memory and mobile forensics, and sources including raw/dd images, EnCase files, databases, internet histories, and Windows registries. Reports can be exported as raw/dd, EnCase, or text. The ISO is approximately 4000 MB, and third-party software keeps its own licenses.
Plaso
Plaso is a Python-based engine for creating timelines used in digital forensic analysis. Its log2timeline tool extracts events from files, directories, storage-media images, or devices and stores them in a Plaso storage file. The psort tool can filter and sort that data and run automatic analysis. Other command-line tools include image_export, pinfo, and psteal. Documented inputs include Windows event logs and registry data, browser histories, SQLite databases, text logs, and cloud audit logs from AWS CloudTrail, Azure Activity, Google Cloud, and Microsoft 365. Plaso can create a CSV timeline from a storage image using psteal with dynamic output; listed formats also include JSON, JSON Lines, KML, TLN, XLSX, OpenSearch, and Timesketch. The framework supports additional parsers, analysis plug-ins, and scripts for forensic tasks. Documented analysis plug-ins include VirusTotal, NSRL server, and hash tagging. Plaso is free, with no commercial plan or usage limits stated. The project recommends packaged releases for general use and a version no older than six months.