The Mobile Application Hacker's Handbook

CHAPTER 2Analyzing iOS Applications

Apple’s iOS, the platform used by today’s iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices, is one of the most popular mobile operating systems available. For this reason, and with the possible exception of Android, it is the platform that is targeted the most by hackers and comes under the greatest scrutiny for application layer vulnerabilities.

With more than one million applications in Apple’s App Store, the attack surface is significant. Numerous examples of application-based security flaws have been documented, affecting a wide range of applications including but not limited to those used in banking, retail, and enterprise environments.

This chapter introduces the iOS platform and the ecosystem and provides an introduction to iOS applications. It sets out in detail the practical steps you can follow to build an environment suitable for testing and exploiting iOS applications. Finally, it describes the ways in which you can begin to analyze and modify iOS applications to identify security flaws.

Understanding the Security Model

Before delving into the inner working of iOS applications and the techniques you can use to attack them, understanding the fundamental security features of the iOS platform itself is important. This not only provides context to application-based vulnerabilities, but also highlights some of the opt-in features that applications can take advantage of to improve security.

The core security features of the iOS platform are summarized ...