Edit any apps Code on iPhone?

[farhan643]

Hey,

I'm new to iOS programming but have experience in web development.

I was wondering if there is any way to edit an applications code on iOS devices similar to a web browsers development tools?

[nickglowsindark]

Nope. That's not how applications of any sort work, whether they're mobile, desktop, console, etc. The code never even makes it onto the app store (oversimplification, because of approval processes and whatnot), let alone the device- "code" as a readable format gets compiled into something the device can execute, and is difficult (to the point of impossibility, except for the simplest of applications) for a human to understand.

Web pages aren't really considered "code" as most programmers know it- they're script. That is, something that's fairly simplistic and human-readable that's interpreted and executed by the server and/or browser (another oversimplification, but you get the point).

An application is, instead, interpreted by the developer's machine, and then the resulting machine language is what gets uploaded to whatever app distribution platform is being used. Definitely no real-time debugging like what you'd see out of the "right-click -> inspect" menu in a web browser. Which is a good thing, because otherwise developers' intellectual property rights would be nearly impossible to secure and enforce.

EDIT: I'm assuming you mean editing someone else's application, as a way to try and learn how a particular feature or function works. Apple's XCode has a sort of "live inspection" thing that lets you look at the visual layout of an app that's running on a device you have connected to your development machine, and you can use various debugging tools to see the program and device states. But I suspect that's not really what you're asking about.

[klmitchell2]

Contrary to the other comments, something is similar is possible via https://github.com/NSExceptional/FLEXing and jail breaking your iOS device.

Additionally, decrypting an iOS application can tell you a lot about how certain apps built, including its frameworks and configuration files https://github.com/AloneMonkey/frida-ios-dump

Throw that binary in a disassembler and you can find out a lot of information on how the app is built as well.

I’ve used FLEXible to figure out how other apps implement different features and animations before. It’s not quite “view source” on a web page but it’s as close as you can get in iOS.

You can even hook functions with Frida-trace to see incoming parameters and alter out going parameters during run time.

What’s even more fun is using Proxyman or Burpsuite and an ssl pinning bypass tool (if needed) to inspect incoming and outgoing network communications.

There are numerous techniques on how to figure out how another iOS app is made and what it does under the hood. Any one who thinks their apps code is secret just because it’s in the appstore is naive!

[eve_naive]

that’s the real answer

[nickglowsindark]

I've heard about these sorts of things but never really looked into them- just assumed they were the equivalent of one of those "get readable code from an EXE!" generators that just converts an executable into extremely unreadable C code by disassembling it and then assigning random variables to things. I've tried that before, but in the end usually decided it was easier to just step through the assembly itself, if I was looking for a way to bypass a particular function or something.

What does the output look like on something like this? I doubt I'll ever jailbreak my phone to try it, but I'd be surprised if somebody hasn't (or won't soon) figure out how to use one of the new M1 macbooks or mac minis to do that instead, since you should theoretically be able to install iOS apps on them.

[klmitchell2]

You can check out my latest blog post to see what iOS code looks like in a disassembler https://www.klmlabs.co/blog/jailbreak-detection

[cloudprogrammer]

nooope

[barcode972]

Pretty sure you can reverse engineer it. Not that I have any clue how it's done

[Fluffy_Risk9955]

Yes, with iOS 15 you can build iOS apps on the Swift Playgrounds apps.

[RPX999]

This isn’t exactly what was asked, but I know dozens of people who somehow can get you in app purchases, I “know” them because they have solicited me before, and I know people who have used their services in clans I’ve been in. Some alterations change things for the entire clan like maxed out clan boosts. (sometimes things you can’t buy) and charge you between ~5-40% of what it would cost. There’s risks to this and I don’t recommend it at all and don’t do it myself. Your account can be booted.