Volatility 3
Community project
The standard framework for memory forensics — extracting processes, network connections, and injected code from RAM captures, where much modern malware lives without ever touching disk. Maintained by the nonprofit Volatility Foundation; version 3 is distributed under the custom Volatility Software License, which is free to use but not OSI-approved, so it is source-available rather than open source.
Verified Source: 1
- Product type
- Community project
- Deployment
- CLI
- Organization size
- IndividualSMBMid-marketEnterprise
- Pricing tier
- Free
Capability checklist
DFIRHow Volatility 3 measures up against the full Digital Forensics & Incident Response taxonomy.
- Endpoint & memory forensic acquisition — not supported
- Captures disk, memory, and system artifacts for detailed forensic analysis.
- Timeline reconstruction — not supported
- Rebuilds the sequence of attacker actions across affected systems.
- Malware analysis — supported
- Analyzes malicious files to understand their behavior and origin.
- Incident response playbooks & retainer — not supported
- Provides pre-built response procedures and on-call expert support during a breach.
- Evidence chain-of-custody — not supported
- Maintains legally defensible handling of evidence for potential litigation.
- Root-cause & scope analysis — not supported
- Determines how an attacker got in and how far they reached.
Alternatives
Other Digital Forensics & Incident Response tools with overlapping capabilities, sized for similar teams.
Appears in stacks
Real-world stacks that include Volatility 3.