Static Analysis
How to review an IPA file.
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How to review an IPA file.
At this point, you should have a decrypted IPA file. If you do not, please read IPA Decryption.
Change the IPA file into a .zip by renaming it something.zip and open the archive.
In this archive, is the IPA binary and all of the supporting files and folders that we can review for issues.
App Binary
A binary will be present which is the compiled application. Take a look at this later as there are many things to be done with the actual application and we're interested in what surrounds it.
"Frameworks" Folder
This folder may contains external frameworks that are implemented within the application. For example, frameworks for Jailbreak detection, SSL pinning and more.
example-certificate.der
There may be a .der file (CA Certificate) that is used for certificate pinning
Info.plist
This contains critical information about the configuration of an iOS mobile app
Other files
A wide range of files may exist in the archive. Review them all one by one for possible issues.
A quick first thing to try is running "strings" on the binary to find any human readable values
On a mac, use the command strings <app>
To really understand the IPA and what it's doing, you must disassemble the IPA
You could use Hopper (hopperapp.com)
MobSF is useful tool to use for IPA analysis and provides a graphical overview of many areas:
docker run -it --rm -p 8000:8000 opensecurity/mobile-security-framework-mobsf:latest
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