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    • National Software Reference Library (NSRL) Reference Data Set (RDS) - NIST Special Database 28

    Metadata Updated: September 30, 2025

    The National Software Reference Library (NSRL) collects software from various sources and incorporates file profiles computed from this software into a Reference Data Set (RDS) of information. The RDS can be used by law enforcement, government, and industry organizations to review files on a computer by matching file profiles in the RDS. This alleviates much of the effort involved in determining which files are important as evidence on computers or file systems that have been seized as part of criminal investigations. The RDS is a collection of digital signatures of known, traceable software applications. There are application hash values in the hash set which may be considered malicious, i.e. steganography tools and hacking scripts. There are no hash values of illicit data, i.e. child abuse images.

    Access & Use Information

    Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: See this page for license information.

    Downloads & Resources

    References

    https://www.nist.gov/software-quality-group/national-software-reference-library-nsrl

    Dates

    Metadata Created Date November 12, 2020
    Metadata Updated Date September 30, 2025
    Data Update Frequency R/P3M

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from Commerce Non Spatial Data.json Harvest Source

    Other Data Resources

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Created Date November 12, 2020
    Metadata Updated Date September 30, 2025
    Publisher National Institute of Standards and Technology
    Maintainer
    Identifier FF429BC178698B3EE0431A570681E858216
    Language en
    Data Last Modified 2021-12-03 00:00:00
    Rights This is a paid resource. It is an annual subscription with quarterly releases and can be ordered online at https://www.nist.gov/srd/nist-special-database-28
    Category Forensics:Digital and multimedia evidence
    Public Access Level public
    Data Update Frequency R/P3M
    Bureau Code 006:55
    Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
    Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
    Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
    Data Dictionary https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/data-formats-of-the-nsrl-reference-data-set-16_0.pdf
    Harvest Object Id 1a5a075f-e7aa-4fae-821d-6dcec1feeead
    Harvest Source Id bce99b55-29c1-47be-b214-b8e71e9180b1
    Harvest Source Title Commerce Non Spatial Data.json Harvest Source
    Homepage URL https://data.nist.gov/od/id/FF429BC178698B3EE0431A570681E858216
    License https://www.nist.gov/open/license
    Program Code 006:052
    Related Documents https://www.nist.gov/software-quality-group/national-software-reference-library-nsrl
    Source Datajson Identifier True
    Source Hash de4439abeb0f866707ac9dc766afac867a0ddf503d7224612fcaaf4fc640a585
    Source Schema Version 1.1

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