Learning resource

Apple Data Formats and Knowledge

The Hack Different community's knowledge base on Apple hardware, firmware and operating-system internals, set up and largely maintained by Rick Mark, which pairs a long categorized link list with original pages and machine-readable YAML data. The README groups references from Mach-O, the dyld shared cache, img4 and boot policy to the Secure Enclave, basebands, USB and Lightning, wireless protocols and diagnostic formats, while the data folder holds 56 topic files plus per-device, certificate and firmware-key records on devices, chips, IPSW builds, Mach-O constants, NVRAM, boot arguments, lockdownd services and entitlements. Rake tasks regenerate parts of the data from Apple's update feeds, The iPhone Wiki and local Apple binaries, and the data is also published as apple-data packages for Ruby, Python and Node.js.

Targets: Binary · Firmware · Protocol
Category: Learning resources
Relationship: Learning resource
Sources reviewed: 2026-10-19

Stars: 1.4k
Last commit: 2026-10-13
Language: Ruby
License (GitHub): MIT

GitHub data as of 2026-11-09

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Requirements & limits

Prerequisites: Reading needs a browser. Building the Jekyll site and running Rake tasks needs Ruby 4.0.5 and Bundler; BUILD.md covers macOS and Debian/Ubuntu setup with hunspell and overcommit hooks. Tasks deriving data from Mach-O binaries or kernel collections read Apple software on the user’s Mac.
Limits: The data-format guide calls the formats v0 and subject to change; several README topics are headings without links.
Scope: The keybags data includes bootloader firmware decryption keys and IVs credited to The iPhone Wiki; the symbols folder includes listings from Apple frameworks. The README also links jailbreaks, exploit write-ups and third-party Apple boot ROM copies.
License: The README states code and data are MIT-licensed and documents are also CC BY-SA 4.0. It excludes contributions based on AppleInternal or other DMCA-protected material; linked projects and Apple software keep their own terms.

Cite

BibTeX

@misc{hack-different-apple-knowledge,
  title = {{Apple Data Formats and Knowledge}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/hack-different/apple-knowledge}},
  url = {https://github.com/hack-different/apple-knowledge},
  urldate = {2026-10-19},
  note = {Awesome REA entry: \url{https://awesomerea.org/resources/hack-different-apple-knowledge/}}
}

Plain text

Apple Data Formats and Knowledge. https://github.com/hack-different/apple-knowledge (accessed 2026-10-19). Awesome REA entry: https://awesomerea.org/resources/hack-different-apple-knowledge/

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About this entry

The description was reviewed against primary sources.

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Primary sources

README.md GitHub · hack-different/apple-knowledge · Revision 7e30ba5
_docs/Data_Formats.md GitHub · hack-different/apple-knowledge · Revision 7e30ba5
BUILD.md GitHub · hack-different/apple-knowledge · Revision 7e30ba5
LICENSE GitHub · hack-different/apple-knowledge · Revision 7e30ba5
_data GitHub · hack-different/apple-knowledge · Revision 7e30ba5
_packages/python/README.md GitHub · hack-different/apple-knowledge · Revision 7e30ba5
https://pypi.org/project/apple-data/