CDR
Definition
Call Detail Record. Telco-side log of A-party, B-party, start time, duration, IMEI, IMSI and serving cell ID. Lawful-intercept output under the IT Act and Indian Telegraph Act.
- Full form
- Call Detail Record
- Held by
- Telecom service provider
- Key fields
- A-party, B-party, timestamp, duration, IMEI, IMSI, cell ID
- Legal basis (India)
- IT Act and Indian Telegraph Act
- Typical use
- Call pattern and contact-network reconstruction
Common questions
How is a CDR different from cell site analysis?+
A CDR is the raw telco log entry for one call or SMS. Cell site analysis is the downstream forensic step that plots the cell IDs recorded across many CDRs onto a map to infer a device's movement over time.
Can a CDR be used alone to prove a person's location?+
Not reliably. A CDR records the serving cell, not GPS coordinates, and a cell can cover anywhere from a few hundred metres to several kilometres, so it supports an approximate area, not a precise point.
Related terms
- Chip-Off
- NIST SP 800-101 R1 Level 5 acquisition. Desoldering the NAND or eMMC chip from the PCB and reading it directly with a...
- Faraday Bag
- A signal-blocking pouch with conductive mesh lining that prevents cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC signals from reaching a seized phone. The standard...
- FDE
- Full Disk Encryption. Default on modern Android (file-based encryption since Nougat) and iOS. Encryption keys are tied to the user passcode and...
- ICCID
- Integrated Circuit Card Identifier. The serial number of the physical SIM card itself, stored in EF_ICCID. It identifies the card as a...
- IMEI
- International Mobile Equipment Identity, a 15-digit identifier of the handset hardware. Format is 8-digit TAC + 6-digit serial + 1-digit Luhn check....
- IMSI
- International Mobile Subscriber Identity. A 15-digit number stored in EF_IMSI on the SIM that uniquely identifies the subscriber account on the mobile...
- MSISDN
- Mobile Station International Subscriber Directory Number. The dialable phone number. Stored on the HLR, not always on the SIM.