Introspy-iOS : Security Tool For Profiling iOS Application at Runtime

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

Also Read Ua-tester – A tool for User Agent WAF, IDS/IPS, Redirection testing

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

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, for general instructions on how to install Theos, click here

You must also set the $THEOS variable in your environment, and export it so makes 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