Introspy iOS

Security profiling for blackbox iOS

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Objective-C

Introspy-iOS

Blackbox tool to help understand what an iOS application is doing at runtime
and assist in the identification of potential security issues.

See http://isecpartners.github.io/Introspy-iOS/ for a quick introduction.

Description

This is the repository for the Introspy-iOS tracer.

The tracer can be installed on a jailbroken device to hook and log
security-sensitive iOS APIs called by applications running on the device. The
tool records details of relevant API calls, including arguments and return
values and persists them in a database.
Additionally, the calls are also sent to the Console for real-time analysis.

The database can then be fed to Introspy-Analyzer, a Python script to generate
HTML reports containing the list of logged function calls as well as a list of
potential vulnerabilities affecting the application. Introspy-Analyzer is hosted
on a separate repository:
https://github.com/iSECPartners/Introspy-Analyzer

Installation

Users should first download the latest pre-compiled Debian package available
in the release section of the project page at:
https://github.com/integrity-sa/Introspy-iOS/releases or for older releases at
https://github.com/iSECPartners/Introspy-iOS/releases

Dependencies

The tracer will only run on a jailbroken device. Using Cydia, make
sure the following packages are installed:

  • dpkg
  • Cydia Substrate
  • PreferenceLoader
  • Applist

How to install

Download and copy the Debian package to the device; install it:

scp <package.deb> root@<device_ip>:~
ssh root@<device_ip>
dpkg -i <package.deb>

Respring the device:

killall -HUP SpringBoard

There should be two new menus in the device’s Settings. The Apps menu allows you
to select which applications will be profiled while the Settings menu defines
which API groups are being hooked.

Finally, kill and restart the App you want to monitor.

How to uninstall

dpkg -r com.isecpartners.introspy

Generating HTML Reports

The tracer will store data about API calls made by applications in a database
stored on the device (actually one in each application’s folder). This database
can be fed to a Python script call Introspy-Analyzer in order to generate HTML
reports that make it a lot easier to review the data collected by the tracer.
The script will also analyze and flag dangerous API calls in order to facilitate
the process of identifying vulnerabilities within iOS applications.

Introspy-Analyzer is hosted on a separate repository:
https://github.com/iSECPartners/Introspy-Analyzer

Building Introspy-iOS

Most users should just download and install the pre-compiled Debian package.
However, if you want to modify the library’s functionality you will have to
build the Debian package yourself.

The build requires the Theos suite, available at https://github.com/theos/theos.
For general instructions on how to install Theos, see
https://github.com/theos/theos/wiki/Installation.

You must also set the $THEOS variable in your environment, and export it so
make will see its value when you run it

export THEOS=/absolute/path/to/theos
export PATH=$THEOS/bin:$PATH

Then, the package can be built using:

make package

Once you’ve successfully created the debian package, you can use Theos to
automatically install the package and re-spring the device by specifying the
device’s IP address in the THEOS_DEVICE_IP environment variable:

export THEOS_DEVICE_IP=192.168.1.127
make install

License

See ./LICENSE.

Authors

  • Tom Daniels
  • Alban Diquet

Maintainers

  • Herman Duarte