• Update: 20231206

Forked from HeiTanBc/restore-symbol, do many furture optimization, to facilicate restore symbols for iOS Mach-O file

• Before restore symbol
  • 
• After restore symbol
  • for: restore-symbol=rs's ObjC + block
    • 
  • for: IDA's Functions + Names + block
    • 

• get restore-symbol executable file
  • download from release
  • or download code then build by yourself
• then makesure workable
  • show version
    • ./restore-symbol --version
  • show help
    • ./restore-symbol --help == ./restore-symbol

download from releases (then rename to restore-symbol)

• download code

  git clone --recursive https://github.com/crifan/restore-symbol.git

• compile to generate restore-symbol

  cd restore-symbol
  make

• Summary
  • for anyone: have IDA Pro
    • (1) ida_search_block.py: scan and writeback block symbols to IDA
    • (2) exportIDASymbol.py: export IDA (Functions (include ObjC) + Names + block) symbols to json file
    • (3) restore-symbol: restore all symbols for iOS Mach-O binary file
  • for anyone: no IDA Pro
    • restore-symol : restore (only) ObjC symbols
• Details:

• (1) scan and writeback block symbols to IDA
  • run tools/IDAScripts/search_oc_block/ida_search_block.py in IDA
    • default config:
      • enableWriteback = True: write back (scanned objc block symbol name) into IDA
      • isExportToFile = True: meanwhile also export block symbol file (for furture use, or manual check)
  • Example
    • WhatsApp
      • 

• (2) export IDA symbols (Functions(inside include ObjC symbols) + Names, and above block symbols) to json file
  • run tools/IDAScripts/export_ida_symbol/exportIDASymbol.py in IDA
    • default config
      • isVerbose = False: no verbose log
        • change to isVerbose = True if you want see details
      • isExportToFile = True: export final all symbols to json file
      • enableDemangleName = True: for (Functions + Names) all symbol names, use demangle name if not None
      • outputFolder = None: default output exported file to current folder of IDA opened Mach-O file
        • set to your expected other folder if necessary
  • Example
    • WhatsApp
      • 
  • Attention
    • makesure IDA's image base == Mach-O vmaddr base is same
      • Example
        • WhatsApp
          • before: IDA image base=0x100C00000
            • 
          • after Rebase program, IDA's image base=0x100000000
            • 
          • same with (MachOView see) WhatsApp's vmaddr=0x100000000
            • 

• (3) restore all symbols for iOS Mach-O binary file
  • run ./restore-symbol to restore IDA exported all symbols (IDA's Functions+Names and block)

    restore-symbol -w true -s false -j {exported_IDA_symbols.json} -o {outputFile_RestoredSymbol} {inputMachOFile}

  • Example
    • WhatsApp

      ./restore-symbol -w true -s false -j tools/IDAScripts/export_ida_symbol/output/WhatsApp_IDASymbols_FunctionsNames_20231129_223621.json -o test/WhatsApp/output/WhatsApp_mergedSymbols_20231129 test/WhatsApp/input/WhatsApp

      • 

use restore-symol to restore ObjC symbols, passing argument with -s true=--scan-objc-symbols true

restore-symbol -s true -o {outputFile_RestoredSymbol} {inputMachOFile}

• Note
  • after restore-symbol restored ObjC symbol, there are some wrong symbol
    • how to fix: use above (exportIDASymbol.py expored) IDA symbols

• Exmaple
  • WhatsApp
    • Only export ObjC symbols to json file + not remove duplicated ObjC symbol

      restore-symbol test/WhatsApp/input/WhatsApp -s true -r false -m false -b test/WhatsApp/output/ObjcSymbols/WhatsApp_objcSymbolsDuplicated_20231201.json

    • Only export ObjC symbols to json file + remove duplicated ObjC symbol

      restore-symbol test/WhatsApp/input/WhatsApp -s true -r false -m true -b test/WhatsApp/output/ObjcSymbols/WhatsApp_objcSymbolsDuplicated_20231201.json

    • scan and restore ObjC symbol, use default remove duplicated ObjC symbol

      restore-symbol test/WhatsApp/input/WhatsApp -s true -r true -m true -o test/WhatsApp/output/WhatsApp_restoredObjcSymbols_20231404

    • scan and restore ObjC symbol, use default remove duplicated ObjC symbol + overwrite output file if exsited

      restore-symbol test/WhatsApp/input/WhatsApp -s true -r true -m true -o test/WhatsApp/output/WhatsApp_restoredObjcSymbols_20231404 -w true

    • restore from imported json symbol file

      restore-symbol test/WhatsApp/input/WhatsApp -s false -r true -j tools/IDAScripts/export_ida_symbol/output/WhatsApp_IDASymbols_FunctionsNames_20231130_104313.json -o test/WhatsApp/output/WhatsApp_restoredIdaAllSymbols_20231404

after export IDA symbol, if you want automate whole process of repack ipa, you can use:

crifan/AutoRepackIpa: Auto repack ipa

• 20231115
  • other updates for exportIDASymbo.py, mergeSymbols.py
• 20231103
  • add tools/IDAScripts/export_ida_symbol/exportIDASymbol.py
    • to export IDA symbols
  • add tools/mergeSymbols/mergeSymbols.py
    • to merge all symbols from restore-symbol restored, exported from IDA functions list, scanned from IDA block
• 20231027
  • search_oc_block/ida_search_block.py
    • Converted to support IDA 7.4+ (SegName->get_segm_name, Qword->get_qword, etc.)
    • Converted to Python 3.x(print xxx->print(xxx), filter->list etc.)
    • Fixed bug: RecursionError: maximum recursion depth exceeded while calling a Python object

➜  restore-symbol git:(master) ✗ ./restore-symbol --help

restore-symbol 2.0 (64 bit)

Usage: restore-symbol [-o <output-file>] [-j <json-symbol-file>] [-w <true/false>] [-s <true/false>] [-b <objcSymbolsOutputFile>] [-r <true/false>] [-p] <input-mach-O-file>

  where options are:
    -h,--help                                              Print this help info then exit
    -v,--version                                           Print version info then exit
    -o,--output <output-file>                              New mach-O file path
                                                             default: null
    -j,--json <json-symbol-file>                           Json file containing extra symbol info, the key is "name","address"
                                                             like this:
                                                               [
                                                                 {
                                                                   "name": "main",
                                                                   "address": "0xXXXXXX"
                                                                 },
                                                                 {
                                                                   "name": "-[XXXX XXXXX]",
                                                                   "address": "0xXXXXXX"
                                                                 },
                                                                 ...
                                                               ]
                                                             default: null
    -w,--overwrite-output-file <true/false>                Overwrite output file if existed
                                                             default: false
    -s,--scan-objc-symbols <true/false>                    Scan objc symbols or not
                                                             default: true
    -m,--remove-duplicated-objc-symbols <true/false>       Remove duplicated objc symbols or not after scan objc symbols
                                                             default: true
    -b,--objc-symbols-output-file <objcSymbolsOutputFile>  Export objc symbols to file
                                                             default: null
    -r,--restore-symols <true/false>                       Restore symbol or not
                                                             default: true
    -p,--replace-restrict                                  New mach-O file will replace the LC_SEGMENT(__RESTRICT,__restrict)
                                                             with LC_SEGMENT(__restrict,__restrict) to close dylib inject protection
                                                             default: disabled

• update class-dump to support new load command: 0x80000033, 0x80000034

A reverse engineering tool to restore stripped symbol table for iOS app.

Example: restore symbol for Alipay

• 1. Download source code and compile.

git clone --recursive https://github.com/HeiTanBc/restore-symbol
cd restore-symbol && make
./restore-symbol

• 2. Restore symbol using this command. It will output a new mach-o file with symbol.

./restore-symbol /pathto/origin_mach_o_file -o /pathto/mach_o_with_symbol 

• 3. Copy the new mach-o file (with symbol) to app bundle, replace the origin mach-o file with new mach-o file. Resign app bundle.

codesign -f -s - --timestamp=none --generate-entitlement-der --entitlement ./xxxx.app.xcent ./xxxx.app

• 4. Install the app bundle to iOS device, and use lldb to debug the app. Maybe you can use the ios-deploy, or other way you like. If you use ios-deploy , you can execute this command.

brew install ios-deploy
ios-deploy -d -b xxxx.app

• 5. Now you can use b -[class method] to set breakpoint.

• 1. Search block symbol in IDA to get json symbol file, using script(search_oc_block/ida_search_block.py) .

• 2. Use command line tool(restore-symbol) to inject oc method symbols and block symbols into mach o file.

./restore-symbol /pathto/origin_mach_o_file -o /pathto/mach_o_with_symbol -j /pathto/block_symbol.json

• 3. Other steps(resign, install, debug) are samen as above.

# ./restore-symbol --help

restore-symbol 1.0 (64 bit)

Usage: restore-symbol -o <output-file> [-j <json-symbol-file>] <mach-o-file>

  where options are:
    -o,--output <output-file>                              New mach-o-file path
    -s,--scan-objc-symbols <true/false>                    true/false to enable/disable to disable scan objc symbols
    -e,--export-objc-symbol <output-objc-symbol-file>      Export ObjC symbol file while restore ObjC symbol
    --replace-restrict                                     New mach-o-file will replace the LC_SEGMENT(__RESTRICT,__restrict)
                                                           with LC_SEGMENT(__restrict,__restrict) to close dylib inject protection
    -j,--json <json-symbol-file>                           Json file containing extra symbol info, the key is "name","address"
                                   like this:
                               
                                    [
                                         {
                                          "name": "main", 
                                          "address": "0xXXXXXX"
                                         }, 
                                         {
                                          "name": "-[XXXX XXXXX]", 
                                          "address": "0xXXXXXX"
                                         },
                                         .... 
                                        ]
    -h,--help                      Print this help info then exit