When to use this skill

Trigger when:

• Recon surfaces 1+ apps under the target's Apple Developer / App Store publisher page
• A TestFlight public link or enterprise/ad-hoc .ipa/manifest.plist (OTA install) is found
• Customer-facing app, dealer/partner portal, or employee mobile companion app ships on iOS
• Bug bounty program lists iOS in scope
• apk-redteam-pipeline already found Android endpoints/secrets — the iOS build often ships a different backend version worth diffing (see hunt-shadow-api)

DO NOT use for:

• Android-only targets — that's apk-redteam-pipeline
• React Native / Flutter apps already fully covered by JS-bundle analysis on the web side
• Server-side only assessments with no mobile client in scope

Stage 0 — Inventory all org-owned iOS apps

# App Store search API (no auth, no scraping needed)
curl -s "https://itunes.apple.com/search?term=<brand>&country=us&entity=software&limit=50" | python3 -m json.tool

# Pull the full metadata for a known bundle ID (once you have one)
curl -s "https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?bundleId=com.<brand>.app&country=us"

Extract: trackId, bundleId, sellerName (developer account — pivot to find sibling apps), version, releaseNotes (changelogs often reference deprecated/removed API behavior — feeds hunt-shadow-api).

Cross-reference sibling-app bundle IDs surfaced from Android APK inventories (same multi-brand conglomerate usually reuses com.<corp>.<sub-brand> naming on both platforms).

Stage 1 — IPA acquisition

Primary: from a real device you control (no jailbreak needed for a purchased/free app)

# Install the app on a real device via Apple Configurator 2 or Xcode, then pull the .ipa
# Apple Configurator 2 (macOS): Devices > select device > right-click installed app > "Save to..."
# Or via libimobiledevice:
brew install libimobiledevice ideviceinstaller
ideviceinstaller -l              # list installed apps + bundle IDs

Secondary: TestFlight (if the program distributes betas publicly)

Open the public TestFlight link, install via the TestFlight app, then extract as above. TestFlight builds are frequently LESS hardened than App Store releases (debug logging left on, staging API hosts hardcoded) — always prefer a TestFlight build over the Store build if both exist.

Tertiary: enterprise / ad-hoc distribution (OTA install)

# itms-services:// links embed a manifest.plist with a direct .ipa URL
curl -s "https://<target>/manifest.plist" | plutil -convert xml1 -o - -
# Look for <key>software-package</key> — that URL is a directly downloadable, unencrypted IPA
curl -sk -L "<software-package-url>" -o target.ipa

Enterprise/ad-hoc IPAs are not FairPlay-encrypted — no jailbreak or decryption tooling needed, unlike an App Store binary pulled from a device.

Decrypting an App-Store-sourced binary (only if extracted from a jailbroken device)

App Store binaries are FairPlay-encrypted at rest; a binary copied off a jailbroken device needs runtime decryption (frida-ios-dump, bagbak, or flexdecrypt) before static tools can read it meaningfully:

pip install --break-system-packages frida-tools
# with frida-server running on the jailbroken device and the app in foreground:
python3 dump.py <bundle_id>          # frida-ios-dump — outputs a decrypted .ipa

Stage 2 — Unpack and static analysis

# An IPA is just a zip
unzip -o target.ipa -d extracted_target/
cd extracted_target/Payload/*.app

# Info.plist — bundle ID, URL schemes, ATS config, entitlements hint
plutil -convert xml1 -o - Info.plist

# Entitlements — codesign reads the .app bundle (or the Mach-O binary), NOT Info.plist
codesign -d --entitlements :- Payload/<AppName>.app 2>/dev/null || \
  security cms -D -i embedded.mobileprovision | plutil -convert xml1 -o - -

# class-dump for Objective-C symbol/class recovery (compiled binary, not the .app bundle)
brew install class-dump
class-dump -H <AppBinaryName> -o headers/

# Swift binaries: class-dump won't show much — use Hopper, Ghidra, or `nm`/`strings` instead
nm -a <AppBinaryName> | grep -i swift | head -50
strings -a <AppBinaryName> > strings_target.txt

For a fast triage pass without a disassembler, the strings dump alone usually surfaces most of what Stage 3 is looking for.

Stage 3 — Secret grep (same catalog as apk-redteam-pipeline, iOS-specific sources added)

# URL grep — owned-domain references
grep -oE 'https?://[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\.(target1|target2|target3)\.(com|io|net)[a-zA-Z0-9./_?=&%-]*' strings_target.txt | sort -u

# Cloud credentials (same 60-pattern catalog as Android — reuse verbatim)
grep -oE 'AKIA[A-Z0-9]{16}'                             # AWS Access Key
grep -oE 'AIza[A-Za-z0-9_-]{35}'                        # Google API key
grep -oE 'eyJ[A-Za-z0-9_-]+\.eyJ[A-Za-z0-9_-]+\.[A-Za-z0-9_-]*' strings_target.txt   # JWT

# iOS-specific: GoogleService-Info.plist (Firebase config bundled per-platform)
find extracted_target -iname "GoogleService-Info.plist" -exec plutil -convert xml1 -o - {} \;
# Look for API_KEY, PROJECT_ID, STORAGE_BUCKET, GCM_SENDER_ID, GOOGLE_APP_ID — same Firebase
# public-read tests as apk-redteam-pipeline Stage 6.

# iOS-specific: hardcoded config plists shipped in the bundle
find extracted_target -iname "*.plist" ! -iname "Info.plist" -exec sh -c 'echo "=== {} ==="; plutil -convert xml1 -o - "{}"' \;

# App Transport Security exceptions (Info.plist) — tells you if arbitrary/insecure loads are allowed
plutil -extract NSAppTransportSecurity xml1 -o - Info.plist 2>/dev/null

Keychain items left in a backup (if you have a device backup, encrypted or not)

pip install --break-system-packages iphone_backup_decrypt   # for encrypted local backups
# keychain-dumper (run ON a jailbroken device) for live keychain contents:
./keychain-dumper -e   # -e also decodes entitlements per item, showing which app owns which secret

Stage 4 — App Transport Security (ATS) misconfig + certificate-pinning bypass

Check for blanket ATS disablement (the single most common iOS network misconfig)

plutil -extract NSAppTransportSecurity xml1 -o - Info.plist

Red flags in the output:

• NSAllowsArbitraryLoads = true at the top level — HTTP (cleartext) allowed anywhere, app-wide.
• Per-domain NSExceptionAllowsInsecureHTTPLoads = true for a domain that carries auth tokens.
• NSAllowsArbitraryLoadsInWebContent = true — WKWebView traffic exempted, common blind spot.

A blanket ATS exception + a network position (rogue AP, ARP spoof, malicious VPN profile) = plaintext credential/token interception without touching pinning at all.

Certificate-pinning bypass (when pinning IS present and correctly configured)

pip install --break-system-packages frida-tools objection
objection --gadget <bundle_id> explore
# inside objection:
ios sslpinning disable

If you want a Frida script instead, don't hand-roll one — use a maintained universal bypass (e.g. the widely-used frida-ios-pinning/ios-ssl-bypass community scripts). Modern iOS TLS goes through BoringSSL, so a reliable universal hook targets SSL_CTX_set_custom_verify / SSL_get_psk_identity at the native layer and forces the verify callback to return "OK" — this catches URLSession, AFNetworking, Alamofire, and TrustKit at once, which per-delegate Objective-C hooks (like the deprecated NSURLConnection delegate) miss:

# Pull a maintained universal BoringSSL-layer bypass and run it:
frida -U -f <bundle_id> -l ios-ssl-bypass.js --no-pause

In practice, prefer SSL Kill Switch 2 (jailbroken device, installs as a tweak) or objection's ios sslpinning disable over any hand-rolled script — both cover the common pinning implementations (NSURLSession, AFNetworking, TrustKit) without per-app tuning.

Stage 5 — URL scheme / Universal Link enumeration

# Custom URL schemes (CFBundleURLTypes) — anything can invoke these via Safari/another app
plutil -extract CFBundleURLTypes xml1 -o - Info.plist

# Universal Links / Associated Domains (applinks:) — requires a matching apple-app-site-association
plutil -extract com.apple.developer.associated-domains xml1 -o - Info.plist 2>/dev/null
curl -s "https://<domain>/.well-known/apple-app-site-association" | python3 -m json.tool

For each custom scheme found (e.g. myapp://):

• Trigger it from Safari/Notes and observe what the app does with parameters: myapp://reset-password?token=x&redirect=https://evil.com — does the app trust an attacker-supplied redirect/url/callback param and load it in a WebView (open-redirect → WebView-XSS chain) or use it to bypass an auth screen?
• If the scheme is also registered by another app on the device (scheme squatting), a malicious app can intercept traffic intended for the legitimate app — check CFBundleURLName uniqueness.
• Universal Links degrade to the custom scheme when the AASA validation fails or is absent — test both paths for the same parameter-injection surface.

Stage 6 — Runtime instrumentation (Frida / objection)

Requires a jailbroken device (checkra1n/palera1n for older iOS, or a Corellium virtual device) — unlike Android, there is no practical rooted-emulator equivalent for iOS.

# Setup
pip install --break-system-packages frida-tools objection
# Install frida-server on the jailbroken device via Cydia/Sileo (frida repo), matching the
# host frida-tools version exactly — version skew is the #1 cause of "failed to attach" errors.

# Full interactive exploration
objection --gadget <bundle_id> explore
# Inside objection:
ios hooking watch class <ClassName>
ios hooking watch class_method <Class>.<method> --dump-args --dump-return
ios keychain dump
ios plist dump
ios cookies get

Network traffic capture (once pinning is bypassed)

mitmproxy --listen-port 8080
# Set the device Wi-Fi proxy to host:8080, install the mitmproxy CA via http://mitm.it on-device
# (Settings > General > VPN & Device Management > trust the cert, then enable full trust under
# Certificate Trust Settings — iOS requires this second step, unlike Android)

Decision tree — what to do with what you find

Anti-patterns

• Don't assume App Store = FairPlay-encrypted requires jailbreak — TestFlight and enterprise/ad-hoc builds are frequently NOT encrypted and need no decryption step at all. Always check distribution channel before reaching for frida-ios-dump.
• Don't skip Swift binaries because class-dump shows nothing — strings and nm still work; a proper Swift-aware disassembler (Hopper, Ghidra with Swift demangling) recovers the rest.
• Don't stop at "pinning is present" as a finding — pinning is a mitigation, not a vulnerability; the finding is what you can do once it's bypassed (or the ATS misconfig that makes it moot).
• Don't ignore WKWebView-loaded content — NSAllowsArbitraryLoadsInWebContent is a distinct, frequently-overlooked exception from the top-level ATS setting.
• Don't run Frida instrumentation against a personal/production Apple ID device — use a dedicated jailbroken test device or Corellium instance.

Tooling install (one-time)

brew install libimobiledevice ideviceinstaller class-dump
pip install --break-system-packages frida-tools objection iphone_backup_decrypt
# Jailbroken test device (checkra1n/palera1n) or a Corellium virtual iOS device for runtime work
# frida-server installed on-device via the Frida Cydia/Sileo repo

Related Skills & Chains

• apk-redteam-pipeline — the Android counterpart; run both when a target ships on both platforms. Sibling bundle IDs and shared backend endpoints frequently surface cross-platform.
• hunt-shadow-api — mobile builds (iOS and Android alike) often hardcode an older API version than the current web app. Chain: IPA reveals /v1/* endpoints → hunt-shadow-api diffs /v1/ against the current /v3/ for auth/validation regressions.
• cloud-iam-deep — IPA secret extraction frequently yields live AWS/GCP/Azure credentials or Firebase configs. Chain: strings-grep produces an AWS key → cloud-iam-deep privilege analysis.
• hunt-api-misconfig — hardcoded JWTs/API keys extracted here feed directly into JWT algorithm-confusion and mass-assignment testing there.
• evidence-hygiene — extracted Keychain items and secrets need redaction before report inclusion.
• offensive-osint — App Store developer-page enumeration is part of the broader org recon graph; pair with certificate-transparency lookups for the same brand.