NodeJS module and commandline utility for re-signing iOS applications (IPA files).
Sergi Alvarez Capilla aka pancake @ nowsecure.com
npm run unzip-lzfse)When running without arguments we get a short help message
$ bin/applesign.js
Usage:
applesign [--options ...] [target.ipa | Payload/Target.app]
-a, --all Resign all binaries, even it unrelated to the app
-b, --bundleid [BUNDLEID] Change the bundleid when repackaging
-c, --clone-entitlements Clone the entitlements from the provisioning to the bin
-f, --force-family Force UIDeviceFamily in Info.plist to be iPhone
-h, --help Show verbose help message
-H, --allow-http Add NSAppTransportSecurity.NSAllowsArbitraryLoads in plist
-i, --identity [1C4D1A..] Specify hash-id of the identity to use
-L, --identities List local codesign identities
-m, --mobileprovision [FILE] Specify the mobileprovision file to use
-o, --output [APP.IPA] Path to the output IPA filename
-O, --osversion 9.0 Force specific OSVersion if any in Info.plist
-p, --without-plugins Remove plugins (excluding XCTests) from the resigned IPA
-w, --without-watchapp Remove the WatchApp from the IPA before resigning
-x, --without-xctests Remove the XCTests from the resigned IPA
Example:
$ applesign -w -c -m embedded.mobileprovision target.ipa
The full help is displayed when passing the --help flag.
$ bin/applesign.js --help
Usage:
applesign [--options ...] [input-ipafile]
Packaging:
-7, --use-7zip Use 7zip instead of unzip
-A, --all-dirs Archive all directories, not just Payload/
-I, --insert [frida.dylib] Insert a dynamic library to the main executable
-l, --lipo [arm64|armv7] Lipo -thin all bins inside the IPA for the given architecture
-n, --noclean keep temporary files when signing error happens
-o, --output [APP.IPA] Path to the output IPA filename
-P, --parallel Run layered signing dependencies in parallel (EXPERIMENTAL)
-r, --replace Replace the input IPA file with the resigned one
-u, --unfair Resign encrypted applications
-z, --ignore-zip-errors Ignore unzip/7z uncompressing errors
Stripping:
-p, --without-plugins Remove plugins (excluding XCTests) from the resigned IPA
-w, --without-watchapp Remove the WatchApp from the IPA before resigning
-x, --without-xctests Remove the XCTests from the resigned IPA
Signing:
--use-openssl Use OpenSSL cms instead of Apple's security tool
-a, --all Resign all binaries, even it unrelated to the app
-i, --identity [1C4D1A..] Specify hash-id of the identity to use
-k, --keychain [KEYCHAIN] Specify alternative keychain file
-K, --add-access-group [NAME] Add $(TeamIdentifier).NAME to keychain-access-groups
-L, --identities List local codesign identities
-m, --mobileprovision [FILE] Specify the mobileprovision file to use
-s, --single Sign a single file instead of an IPA
-S, --self-sign-provision Self-sign mobile provisioning (EXPERIMENTAL)
-v, --verify Verify all the signed files at the end
-V, --verify-twice Verify after signing every file and at the end
Info.plist
-b, --bundleid [BUNDLEID] Change the bundleid when repackaging
-B, --bundleid-access-group Add $(TeamIdentifier).bundleid to keychain-access-groups
-f, --force-family Force UIDeviceFamily in Info.plist to be iPhone
-H, --allow-http Add NSAppTransportSecurity.NSAllowsArbitraryLoads in plist
-O, --osversion 9.0 Force specific OSVersion if any in Info.plist
Entitlements:
-c, --clone-entitlements Clone the entitlements from the provisioning to the bin
-e, --entitlements [ENTITL] Specify entitlements file (EXPERIMENTAL)
-E, --entry-entitlement Use generic entitlement (EXPERIMENTAL)
-M, --massage-entitlements Massage entitlements to remove privileged ones
-t, --without-get-task-allow Do not set the get-task-allow entitlement (EXPERIMENTAL)
-C, --no-entitlements-file Do not create .entitlements file in the IPA
-h, --help Show this help message
--version Show applesign version
[input-ipafile] Path to the IPA file to resign
Examples:
$ applesign -L # enumerate codesign identities, grab one and use it with -i
$ applesign -m embedded.mobileprovision target.ipa
$ applesign -i AD71EB42BC289A2B9FD3C2D5C9F02D923495A23C target.ipa
$ applesign -m a.mobileprovision -c --lipo arm64 -w target.ipa
Installing in the device:
$ ideviceinstaller -i target-resigned.ipa
$ ios-deploy -b target-resigned.ipa
List local codesign identities:
$ bin/applesign -L
Resign an IPA with a specific identity:
$ bin/applesign -i 1C4D1A442A623A91E6656F74D170A711CB1D257A foo.ipa
Change bundleid:
$ bin/applesign -b org.nowsecure.testapp path/to/ipa
There are different ways to sign an IPA file with applesign for experimental reasons.
You may want to check the following options:
-c, --clone-entitlements
put the entitlements embedded inside the signed mobileprovisioning file provided by the user as the default ones to sign all the binaries
-S, --self-sign-provision
creates a custom mobileprovisioning (unsigned for now). installd complains
-E, --entry-entitlement
use the default entitlements plist. useful when troubleshooting
The default signing method does as follow:
After some testing we will probably go for having -c or -E as default.
In addition, for performance reasons, applesign supports -p for parallel signing. The order of signing the binaries inside an IPA matters, so applesign creates a dependency list of all the bins and signs them in order. The parallel signing aims to run in parallel as much tasks as possible without breaking the dependency list.
It is possible with --force-family to remove the UISupportedDevices from the Info.plist and replace the entitlement information found in the mobileprovisioning and then carefully massage the rest of entitlements to drop the privileged ones (--massage-entitlements).
Other interesting manipulations that can be done in the IPA are:
-I, --insert [frida.dylib]
Allows to insert a dynamic library in the main executable. This is how Frida can be injected to introspect iOS applications without jailbreak.
-l, --lipo [arm64|armv7]
Thinifies an IPA by removing all fatmach0s to only contain binaries for one specified architecture. Also this is helpful to identify non-arm binaries embedded inside IPA that can be leaked from development or pre-production environments.
In order to thinify the final IPA even more, applesign allows to drop the watchapp extensions which would not be necessary for non Apple Watch users.
Sometimes the time required to run the codesigning step matters, so applesign allows to skip some steps and speedup the process.
See --dont-verify and --parallel commandline flags.
Enabling those options can result on a 35% speedup on ~60MB IPAs.
Here's a simple program that resigns an IPA:
const Applesign = require('applesign');
const as = new Applesign({
identity: '81A24300FE2A8EAA99A9601FDA3EA811CD80526A',
mobileprovision: '/path/to/dev.mobileprovision',
withoutWatchapp: true
});
as.events.on('warning', (msg) => {
console.log('WARNING', msg);
})
.on('message', (msg) => {
console.log('msg', msg);
});
as.signIPA('/path/to/app.ipa')
.then(_ => {
console.log('ios-deploy -b', as.config.outfile);
})
.catch(e => {
console.error(e);
process.exitCode = 1;
});
To list the developer identities available in the system:
try {
const ids = await as.getIdentities();
ids.forEach((id) => {
console.log(id.hash, id.name);
});
} catch (err) {
console.error(err, ids);
}
Bear in mind that the Applesign object can tuned to use different configuration options:
const options = {
file: '/path/to/app.ipa',
outfile: '/path/to/app-resigned.ipa',
entitlement: '/path/to/entitlement',
bundleid: 'app.company.bundleid',
identity: 'hash id of the developer',
mobileprovision: '/path/to/mobileprovision file',
ignoreVerificationErrors: true,
withoutWatchapp: true
};
See the Wiki: https://github.com/nowsecure/node-applesign/wiki
Pre iOS9 devices will require a developer account:
FAQs
API to resign IPA files
We found that applesign demonstrated a healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released less than a year ago. It has 2 open source maintainers collaborating on the project.
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