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Tool

mobdevim

Derek Selander's macOS command-line utility for inspecting and controlling iOS devices connected over USB or Wi-Fi through Apple's private MobileDevice framework. It lists devices and installed apps with their Info.plist keys and entitlements, streams the device console, fetches crash logs, shows provisioning profiles and developer certificates, copies an app's data container off the device and back where the sandbox allows, and installs, uninstalls and launches apps with arguments and environment variables. With a Developer Disk Image mounted it also lists and kills processes and simulates location, and output can be printed as plist for scripts.

Targets
App
Category
Debugging and dynamic analysis
Relationship
Foundation tool
Sources reviewed

Requirements & limits

  • No releases or tags; the reviewed main commit of 2024-02-01, which says it fixed log grabbing, is the latest push. The README's usage text shows a build compiled on 2023-11-07 and still marks log retrieval as broken on iOS 16.5 and device backup as a to-do. The repository also commits a prebuilt compiled/mobdevim binary, last changed on 2023-11-07.
  • Build the Xcode project on macOS; it links /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileDevice.framework, sets macOS deployment targets of 10.12 and 10.13, and a build phase copies mobdevim to /usr/local/bin, which must be writable or the build fails. The README states no supported iOS or Xcode versions.
  • Needs an iOS device connected over USB or paired for Wi-Fi. Process listing and killing, app launching and location simulation need a mounted Developer Disk Image, which the -I option mounts from a signature and .dmg pair the user supplies, for example from Xcode. Copying app data goes through the house_arrest service, so it works only for apps the sandbox exposes.
  • GitHub detects no license and the repository root has no license file, so the tool's terms are unstated; the process directory carries a 2018 Hex-Rays MIT license for its Instruments client code, and misc/InstrumentsPlugin.h credits codecolorist's FreeTheSandbox. This review ran nothing against a device, and the sources establish no REA connection.

About this entry

The description was reviewed against primary sources. This does not establish runtime testing, security auditing or verified compatibility.

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Primary sources

  1. README.md GitHub · DerekSelander/mobdevim · Revision 68cddb3
  2. mobdevim.xcodeproj/project.pbxproj GitHub · DerekSelander/mobdevim · Revision 68cddb3
  3. mobdevim/install_ddi/install_ddi.m GitHub · DerekSelander/mobdevim · Revision 68cddb3
  4. mobdevim/yoink/yoink.m GitHub · DerekSelander/mobdevim · Revision 68cddb3
  5. mobdevim/process/LICENSE GitHub · DerekSelander/mobdevim · Revision 68cddb3
  6. mobdevim/misc/InstrumentsPlugin.h GitHub · DerekSelander/mobdevim · Revision 68cddb3
  7. compiled GitHub · DerekSelander/mobdevim · Revision 68cddb3

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