Questions tagged [macos]

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Strange entry point for an old Mac OS X x86 32 bit binary

I wanted to reverse engineer an old game for Mac OS X, but I can't figure out how the entry point jumps to other code. The binary is an x86 Macho-O executable and, according to Detect it Easy, it was ...
Ajadaz's user avatar
  • 11
2 votes
1 answer
150 views

MachO chained fixups parsing

I'm wondering how the info stored in the chained fixups in the Mach-O file is used to resolve binding and rebases? My question originated from wanting to parse all the Objective-C classes inside a ...
Jorayen's user avatar
  • 185
0 votes
1 answer
127 views

Extracting obj-c class list from a machO

I'm trying to analyze and get the full list of selectors and their related classes in objective-c by first reading the __objc_classlist section and getting pointers to the struct objc_class list to ...
Jorayen's user avatar
  • 185
0 votes
0 answers
72 views

Ghidra - Mach-O failed to load external libraries

I'm trying to follow the steps in the book "The Art of Mac Malware" and disassemble the malicious part (the patch binary) of the EvilQuest malware with Ghidra instead of Hopper or IDA. (...
pudi's user avatar
  • 180
1 vote
0 answers
136 views

How to reverse engineer a USB sump pump controller that is not designed to connect to a computer

I have a sump pump monitor / controller that is USB-enabled. The USB port on the side is designed to hook to a WiFi module or a once-promised, now-canceled, never-produced Z-wave module (which is what ...
Nick Williams's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
268 views

How to do live debugging of ARM64 binaries on macOS with M1/M2 chips?

I'm trying to figure out why NSSavePanel fails in my SwiftUI app. I tried every possible documentation, or asking on the Swift programming forums - to no avail. I'm originally a Windows programmer, ...
c00000fd's user avatar
  • 1,639
4 votes
0 answers
303 views

Ghidra not loading classes and types of external library

I'm analyzing a mac OS framework, and while redefining types in the decompilation view, I wish to define one of the types as a type defined as NSData class which is defined inside CoureFoundation ...
Jorayen's user avatar
  • 185
1 vote
0 answers
80 views

Patched Mac application throws "Invalid value of (null) for entitlement" when running it

I have patched a specific application that I downloaded from the app store but when I ran the executable, it gave me a signal kill 9. I also reverted back the change I made, but the same error was ...
Ryan's user avatar
  • 11
2 votes
0 answers
192 views

Hopper Disassembler AArch64 assemble instruction syntax error

As the screenshot shown above, I attempt to change cbz to cbnz, hopper gives me "syntax error". At this moment I can only change it by editing the instruction encoding in hex view as a ...
Alice Chan's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
67 views

Attempting to understand non-XZ file signatures within PBZX chunks

After my previous question from nearly a year ago directing me to the YAA format to make sense of the chunks that could be decompressed, this time we're dealing with the chunks that made pbzx tell us ...
Kittywhiskers Van Gogh's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
160 views

Kernel debug two physical MacBook pro devices

I've asked the same question at stackoverflow, but i'm gonna copy-paste it here as i might get more relevant answers(?): I'm trying to kernel debug a physical Macbook pro device. When my setup ...
0xAK's user avatar
  • 668
1 vote
1 answer
240 views

macOS under M1, cannot find library

I'm looking for the following dylib file which is included from process loginwindow. If I run vmmap to inspect loginwindow while it's up and running I get : user@mycomp / % sudo vmmap -I ``pgrep ...
Zohar81's user avatar
  • 293
1 vote
1 answer
138 views

Inbound network queries not appearing in developer tools of browser

When trying to understand the behavior of web apps, I find myself stumbling against the fact that some network messages do not appear on the network tab of the web developer tool of the browser. For ...
DevShark's user avatar
  • 111
2 votes
1 answer
857 views

How to fix an extracted dyld from dyld_shared_cache_x86_64?

As part of challenging my self I was trying to run a program that doesn't exist on Catlina taken from Big Sur. I had to extract the dylibs from the shared cache by using this tool. The library called ...
BadSugar's user avatar
  • 110
3 votes
2 answers
299 views

Extract closed format metadata from audio file

I am writing an app to analyze .wav audio files and extract metadata. The way the metadata works for RIFF based files is shown in this picture: You need to have "format" and "data&...
kernelpanic's user avatar
-2 votes
1 answer
743 views

How to fix Mach-O segment section to deobfuscate the binary

When reversing a Mach-O crackme file under IDA Free and MacOS, the analysis output a log in the console window that yields warning about Mach-O segments. Loading file 'target' into database... ...
sensation's user avatar
5 votes
3 answers
11k views

GDB hangs when I try to run and debug a binary

When I type gdb a.out and then run inside the gdb itself I get stuck on the empty line: jericho-laptop:exploit.education jericho$ gdb a.out GNU gdb (GDB) 9.1 ... Reading symbols from a.out... (No ...
user3732445's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
519 views

Not able to find Hard coded strings in the mac executable file

I know that there is a string called "Activate your subscription" used in this particular app. But Im not able to find this string from its executable. I tried strings myapp and also searched for same ...
Jaffer Sheriff's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
13k views

OTOOL alternative for linux

I have a reverse engineering set up on a Mac machine. This set up does some reverse engineering on iOS applications(.ipa files). I'm migrating the setup from Mac to a linux machine. Currently on Mac, ...
Rohit saraf's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
3k views

(MacOS) disable codesign check / run codesign on multiple files

so I have two questions, I'll try to keep it short (also, im a noob): I run logic pro x and other software to make music, and some third party plugins make program crash if they get a: Exception ...
Gobee's user avatar
  • 41
5 votes
1 answer
744 views

Import symbols containing strange characters

I am analyzing a macOS app with radare2, and the app depends on a number of Qt frameworks. When I printed out the import symbols of the app's main executable, the names of the frameworks' functions ...
Thanh Bui's user avatar
  • 161
4 votes
2 answers
2k views

How to use Hopper Debugger Server

I am assuming that Hopper Debugger Server is meant to allow you to remotely debug an potentially malicious app. For example, I would like to debug an app that is running on a VM or on a separate ...
T. Reed's user avatar
  • 83
5 votes
2 answers
637 views

IDA Pro: "File is apple protected"

I'm trying to disassemble Dock.app on macOS Sierra, and IDA is giving me this error message: What does this mean?
tbodt's user avatar
  • 223
1 vote
1 answer
116 views

OSX User level application Preferences (plist) are not loaded after binary modification

I am working on a project that requires to modify an existing OSX application's dylib binary (few bytes to correct an obsolete URL). I do not have access to the application source code nor the code ...
Tamas Foldi's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
2k views

Why are there absolute jmps in disassembly of position independent code?

I'm playing around with Hopper and am looking at the disassembly of a binary that otool reports as having the PIE flag. It's my understanding that as a result, the executable base address will be ...
1110101001's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
499 views

IDA Pro macOS kernel debugging and lldb support

I'm trying to revers some kexts on macOS and I can't find a way to achieve the same level of debugging you can do on Windows kernel with IDA and WinDBG. Is there a way to add support for lldb? Or can ...
Raphael Stroe's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
189 views

What does the M68k $FBE6 instruction do on a classic Mac?

I have a classic Mac OS executable where control is given to an instruction whose hex encoding is $FBE6. I have been unable to find documentation for this F-line instruction, and it doesn't appear to ...
John Källén's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
117 views

Is there a static address to a pointer on Mac OS?

Given the sample code below: #include <iostream> struct Data { int a; int b; int c; }; int main() { Data *d = new Data; d->a = 1337; d->b = 1338; d->c = ...
Anthony De Meulemeester's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
1k views

Reverse engineering the PluginKit MacOS framework

I've been tasked with an assignment requiring a thorough reverse engineering effort on the PluginKit framework in modern Mac operating system, and I'm looking for information to start off, instead of ...
NirIzr's user avatar
  • 11.7k
18 votes
6 answers
24k views

What is a free & open source alternative to IDA Pro for MacOS?

I am looking for a free & open source alternative to IDA Pro runs on MacOS - the suggestions should have as close to the features of IDA as possible. I should also be able to edit an executable ...
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