As the title says, I am trying to create an app(personal development) and try to see what kind of system information or user data can be retrieved from phone. For now I am using the stimulator provided. So far what I am able to do is to retrieve information using the Address Book and UIKit Framework such as contact details and System Name/Version etc.
Is there any system information/user data that I missed out because I have yet to know of any more frameworks that allows retrieving of any information from the phone/Stimulator. I am not able to test EventKit Framework(the only other framework that I know) due to the fact that I am deploying the app in the stimulator which does not have the required apps. (Will be trying on jailbroken iphone in the later stages).
Also, I have yet to find any information of accessing the .sqlitedb /.db/.plist files programmatically instead of using any software tools as I would like to access the files such as messages, phone history through my app that I created. If this is possible, I would also like to know if accessing these .sqlitedb /.db files/.plist is only applicable if I deploy my app in the jailbroken phone /Applications folder which does not have sandbox or is it also applicable in the stimulator itself?
This will be definitely helpful to you to get access the call/sms/email details by reading the .sqlite database. Here is a tutorial.
i know providing links are discouraged here however these apple and wiki
links will be helpful to you.
thanks
Related
For my iOS App, I am using Campaign Links from App Store Connect for advertisement purposes, and sometimes use Branch links.
Is it possible to get Campaign details inside app after installation is done natively without using any third party SDKs?
I would like to know from which campaign the installation came from with apple provided technology.
Is it possible to get the details inside the app programatically?
I have heard that In Android, they can achieve the functionality using InstallReferrerClient of the library com.android.installreferrer:installreferrer
Do we have any similar option for iOS?
Please guide, Thank you.
I am working on a library with a very verbose logger module that, on iOS, writes xml logs to NSDocumentDirectory in a consistent file tree. I want to come up with a way for the user of this library to easily access these logs.
I know it is simple to programatically retrieve files from this directory, but is it possible to access this directory on an iOS physical device in any way from outside Xcode to retrieve these logs? I feel like I have seen it somewhere before, something in the manner of extracting the .ipa file and going into the package contents, but I could be wrong.
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This (Browse the files created on a device by the IOS application I'm developing, on workstation?) is how to do it with Xcode on a device, but I have to assume that there is some way we can create that gets the logs off of a device for a user.
is it possible to access this directory on an iOS physical device in any way from outside Xcode to retrieve these logs?
It is possible to expose the Documents directory by enabling iTunes file sharing. When file sharing is enabled through this method, the contents of Documents directory would be visible to the user in iTunes, which can also be exported. The documents would also be visible for export through some third party desktop apps like iExplorer.
Here is the link to Apple documentation. You may also refer this thread to understand how this is done.
If you're using a simulator (apparently your task doesn't seem to need te real device) you are in luck.
You should go to a folder similar to this one:
/Users/[YOUR_USER_NAME]/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices/[RANDOM_HASH_YOU_SHOULD_DISCOVER]/data/Containers/Data/Application/[RANDOM_HASH_2_YOU_SHOULD_ALSO_DISCOVER]
Once there, with finder, you'll get the "documents" folder of the simulator and the app you're trying to retrieve your logs from.
You might say: I don't know which 2 RANDOM_HASHES should I go to.
Yes, you're right. If you have MANY simulators installed and or being used, it might be tricky to discover which one is the one you're trying to debug.
The same thing with your APP, your app will live in another RANDOM_HASH folder, and you should browse them, one by one, and then discover your documents folder.
Someone needed to solve this "mess" and created a Xcode Alcatraz Extension that leads you to the exact live simulator and APP you're debugging in any given moment, and then you don't need to guess which 2 random_hash paths you need to navigate to.
If Xcode + Alcartaz plugin extension manager is somewhat out of your reach, you might need to google it. It's not a difficult process.
PS: That magical Alcatraz Extension is named "XCodeWay" (in case you are brave enough to install Alcatraz onto your copy of XCode).
EDIT: Useful link to get Alcatraz: http://alcatraz.io/ Follow its easy instructions and you're done.
EDIT2: If Xcode cannot be used, then the last question in this other thread might come in handy: Browse the files created on a device by the IOS application I'm developing, on workstation?
(Still, an external application in your users machine will be needed )
I just got done reading the press hysteria around AFNetworking exposing apps to a man in the middle attack. I was surprised that sourcedna.com claims
SourceDNA analyzes the code in thousands of iOS & Android apps.
sourcedna.com even has a search engine to report whether a vendor's apps use the AFNetworking SDK.
Considering they don't have access to paid apps, how do they claim to do this? Do SDKs like AFNetworking log SDK use in some form? If so, to who?
I am curious about this too. Here is what I gather:
SourceDNA only checks whether the library is linked into the app binary. They do not check how or whether the library is actually used by the app.
Objective-C is a dynamic language and keeps a lot of metadata in the binary. You can trivially run tools like class-dump or otool -ov on any unencrypted binary and it will list the names and inheritance of all classes, and the names and signatures of all methods and instance variables in each class, among other things.
Libraries like AFNetworking have many distinctive class names that they can check for in the list of classes in the app. Each version will have some added or removed methods and/or instance variables, so by checking the class dump from the app against the class declarations from each version of the library, they can figure out the version of the library used.
However, apps downloaded from the App Store are encrypted; and the App Store is the only way that SourceDNA could have gotten these apps. It is possible to decrypt / crack encrypted apps (that is how people pirate paid apps -- they buy them, crack them, and post the unencrypted binaries on pirate websites), but the common way to do this I believe involves buying and running the app on a jailbroken device.
I assume that the SourceDNA people must have automated this process somehow, so that they can automatically report on thousands of apps.
As I replied to #janselrx, I believe it's as I suspected and they can only analyze free apps. From their website:
SourceDNA analyzes the code in thousands of iOS & Android apps. This report lets you explore recent data about the mobile SDKs and tools found in the top 500 free apps.
Apologies if this has been asked before but I couldn't find anything specific to my situation..
I've been tasked with creating a new version of an app already on the market place.
Unfortunately, the client only has access to the binary and not the source code as the previous development team didn't provide this information.
The client has been unable to get in touch with the previous development team so I can assume getting a hold of the original source code is off the table.
I was wondering, in a case like this, how does the iOS upgrade procedure work?
As an additional question, is it possible for the new app to access the data stored by the old app and if so, can anyone point me in the right direction on how to go about doing this please?
Thank you!
To make the update you must have the same bundleIdentifier as the current version. This will be displayed in iTunes Connect.
To get the stored data, you should use a tool called iFunBox.
Here's a little tutorial on how you can do it:
Steps for using iFunBox
Download the current version of the app
You should also use the apps functions, so the app saves the data you wish to extract.
Connect your iDevice to your Mac/PC
Download and install iFunBox (link here: http://www.i-funbox.com)
Launch the program and navigate to your device
Press "User Applications", then your application
Find the data the app stores
The NSUserDefaults plist-file is located in "Library" -> "Preferences" and is called com.yourCompany.appName.plist
A lot of apps also stores files in yourApp/Documents/
You can also explore the apps folder and look for the data you need. Hope this helps :)
If you have access to the iTunes Connect account, with which this app was published the problem is not too large: you can update app with any binary that have the same application id (bundle identifier) and larger version number.
You definitely can have access to the data of previous version - either it's stored in NSUserDefaults or app Documents folder etc., but you should have a clue of its format (e.g. keys of NSUserDefaults) - some reverse engineering of binaries can help.
You must know the bundleIdentifier and use the same otherwise the apps wont update.
The version number must also be higher than the current one
Also the data saved in the old app can be read but you need to know in which format it is.
I read that PhoneGap is approved by Apple as a framework for building native apps, but I'm not clear on how this does not constitute a "website wrapped as an app," something that Apple specifically doesn't like, as per their App Store guidelines. I'm assuming it is because the JS is contained in the application, rather than running on a remote server?
Any clarification on this issue would be most appreciated.
but I'm not clear on how this does not constitute a "website wrapped
as an app," something that Apple specifically doesn't like, as per
their App Store guidelines.
By this Apple means Apps that simply show a UIWebView that loads a remote website, so it basically just behaves like Mobile Safari, just without the controls. Also they wan't Apps to show at least a UI when the device is not connected to the internet, like in the Facebook App where you can still read already downloaded status updates, view photos etc. That's what a "I just wrap a remote website inside a UIWebView"-App can't do.
PhoneGap Apps have all the resources they need (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) on the device residing in the App's bundle, so using such an App would not depend on network availability and could at least show a UI that tells you to connect to the Internet in order to use the App, or they could display already loaded content (like Facebook, Twitter and so on).
I think that the signature of the binary tells Apple what framework built the application, and since all the supporting files (js included) are included in the project and therefore in the binary, it is a standalone application. That being said, I still think that doing things Natively is the best way to go. I am extremely comfortable with javascript and started out thinking Phonegap was the way to go for me. I did a couple of projects with it and then decided to take the plunge and learn Objective-C. That worked out so much better for me. No dependency on a third party framework and I wish that I had started that way.
Sometimes the easy way out just hurts ya in the end IMO.