• Description
• Installation
  • Lower iOS versions (<13)
• Usage
  • Example
• Lockdown services
  • Implemented services
  • Un-implemented services
• The bits and bytes
  • Sending your own messages
    • Lockdown messages
    • Instruments messages
• Contributing

pymobiledevice3 is a pure python3 implementation for working with iDevices (iPhone, etc...).

Main features include:

• TCP port forwarding
• Viewing syslog lines (including debug)
• Profile management
• Application management
• File system management (AFC)
• Crash reports management
• Network sniffing
• Firmware update
• Mounting images
• Notification listening and triggering (notify_post() api)
• Querying and setting SpringBoard options
• DeveloperDiskImage features:
  • Taking screenshots
  • Simulate locations
  • Process management
  • Sniffing KDebug messages (strace capabilities++)
  • Process monitoring (top like)
  • Accessibility features
• Backup

Install the last released version using pip:

python3 -m pip install --user -U pymobiledevice3

Or install the latest version from sources:

git clone [email protected]:doronz88/pymobiledevice3.git
cd pymobiledevice3
python3 -m pip install --user -U -e .

You can also install auto-completion for all available sub-commands by adding the following into your ~/.zshrc:

# python-click<8.0
eval "$(_PYMOBILEDEVICE3_COMPLETE=source_zsh pymobiledevice3)"
# python-click>=8.0
eval "$(_PYMOBILEDEVICE3_COMPLETE=zsh_source pymobiledevice3)"

If you wish to use pymobiledevice3 with iOS versions lower than 13, Make sure to install openssl:

On MAC:

brew install openssl

On Linux:

sudo apt install openssl

You can either use the CLI:

Usage: pymobiledevice3 [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

Options:
  --help  Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  activation       activation options
  afc              FileSystem utils
  apps             application options
  backup2          backup utils
  companion        companion options
  crash            crash report options
  developer        developer options.
  diagnostics      diagnostics options
  list-devices     list connected devices
  lockdown         lockdown options
  mounter          mounter options
  notification     notification options
  pcap             sniff device traffic
  power-assertion  Create a power assertion (wraps...
  processes        processes cli
  profile          profile options
  provision        privision options
  restore          restore options
  springboard      springboard options
  syslog           syslog options

Or import and use the API yourself:

from pymobiledevice3.lockdown import LockdownClient
from pymobiledevice3.services.syslog import SyslogService

lockdown = LockdownClient()
for line in SyslogService(lockdown=lockdown).watch():
    # just print all syslog lines as is
    print(line)

A recorded example can be viewed at:

https://terminalizer.com/view/18920b405193

This is the list of all the services from lockdownd which we reversed and implemented API wrappers for. A click on each will lead to each one's implementation, where you can learn more about.

• com.apple.mobile.heartbeat
  • Just a ping to lockdownd service.
  • Used to keep an active connection with lockdownd
• com.apple.mobileactivationd
  • Activation services
• com.apple.afc
  • File access for /var/mobile/Media
  • Based on afcd's protocol
• com.apple.crashreportcopymobile
  • File access for /var/mobile/Library/Logs/CrashReports
  • Based on afcd's protocol
• com.apple.pcapd
  • Sniff device's network traffic
• com.apple.syslog_relay
  • Just streams syslog lines as raw strings
  • For a more robust structural parsing, it's better to access the com.apple.os_trace_relay relay.
• com.apple.os_trace_relay
  • More extensive syslog monitoring
• com.apple.mobile.diagnostics_relay
  • General diagnostic tools
• com.apple.mobile.notification_proxy
  • API wrapper for notify_post() & notify_register_dispatch()
• com.apple.crashreportmover
  • Just trigger crash_mover to move all crash reports into crash directory
• com.apple.mobile.MCInstall
  • Profile management (MDM)
• com.apple.misagent
  • Provisioning Profiles management
• com.apple.companion_proxy
  • Companion features (watches and etc.)
• com.apple.mobilebackup2
  • Local backup management
• com.apple.mobile.assertion_agent
  • Create power assertion to prevent different kinds of sleep
• com.apple.springboardservices
  • Play with device's button layout
• com.apple.mobile.mobile_image_mounter
  • Image mounter service (used for DeveloperDiskImage mounting)
• com.apple.mobile.house_arrest
  • Get AFC utils (file management per application bundle)
• com.apple.mobile.installation_proxy
  • Application management
• com.apple.instruments.remoteserver
  • Developer instrumentation service, iOS<14 (DeveloperDiskImage)
• com.apple.instruments.remoteserver.DVTSecureSocketProxy
  • Developer instrumentation service, iOS>=14 (DeveloperDiskImage)
• com.apple.mobile.screenshotr
  • Take screenshot into a PNG format (DeveloperDiskImage)
• com.apple.accessibility.axAuditDaemon.remoteserver
  • Accessibility features (DeveloperDiskImage)
• com.apple.dt.simulatelocation
  • Allows to simulate locations (DeveloperDiskImage)
• com.apple.dt.fetchsymbols
  • Allows fetching of dyld and dyld shared cache files (DeveloperDiskImage)

This is the list of services we haven't dedicated time in implementing. If you feel the need to use one of them or any other that is not listed in here, feel free to create us an issue request .

• com.apple.idamd
  • Allows settings the IDAM configuration (whatever that means...)
• com.apple.atc
  • AirTraffic related
• com.apple.ait.aitd
  • AirTraffic related
• com.apple.mobile.file_relay
  • On older iOS versions (iOS <= 8), this was the main relay used for file operations, which was later replaced with AFC.
• com.apple.mobile.insecure_notification_proxy
  • API wrapper for notify_post() & notify_register_dispatch() from whitelist
• com.apple.mobilesync
• com.apple.purpletestr
• com.apple.webinspector
  • Used to debug WebViews

To understand the bits and bytes of the communication with lockdownd you are advised to take a look at this article:

https://jon-gabilondo-angulo-7635.medium.com/understanding-usbmux-and-the-ios-lockdown-service-7f2a1dfd07ae

Every such subcommand may wrap several relay requests underneath. If you wish to try and play with some the relays yourself, you can run:

pymobiledevice3 lockdown service <service-name>

This will start an IPython shell where you already have the connection established using the client variable and you can send & receive messages.

# This shell allows you to communicate directly with every service layer behind the lockdownd daemon.

# For example, you can do the following:
client.send_plist({"Command": "DoSomething"})

# and view the reply
print(client.recv_plist())

# or just send raw message
client.sendall(b"hello")

# and view the result
print(client.recvall(20))

If you want to play with DTServiceHub which lies behind the developer options, you can also use:

pymobiledevice3 developer shell

To also get an IPython shell, which lets you call ObjC methods from the exported objects in the instruments' namespace like so:

# This shell allows you to send messages to the DVTSecureSocketProxy and receive answers easily.
# Generally speaking, each channel represents a group of actions.
# Calling actions is done using a selector and auxiliary (parameters).
# Receiving answers is done by getting a return value and seldom auxiliary (private / extra parameters).
# To see the available channels, type the following:
developer.supported_identifiers

# In order to send messages, you need to create a channel:
channel = developer.make_channel('com.apple.instruments.server.services.deviceinfo')

# After creating the channel you can call allowed selectors:
channel.runningProcesses()

# If an answer is expected, you can receive it using the receive method:
processes = channel.receive_plist()

# Sometimes the selector requires parameters, You can add them using MessageAux. For example lets kill a process:
channel = developer.make_channel('com.apple.instruments.server.services.processcontrol')
args = MessageAux().append_obj(80)  # This will kill pid 80
channel.killPid_(args, expects_reply=False)  # Killing a process doesn't require an answer.

# In some rare cases, you might want to receive the auxiliary and the selector return value.
# For that cases you can use the recv_plist method.
return_value, auxiliary = developer.recv_plist()

See CONTRIBUTING.