Finding constants from a decrypted iOS app executable

Question

I\'m trying to find a constant (something like a secret token) from inside of an iOS app in order to build an app using an undocumented web API (by the way, I\'m not into so

Answer 1

Unfortunately, no, unless there's some black magic tool out there that I'm unaware of, or unless the executable was built with debug symbols (which is likely not the case). If there are debug symbols, you should be able to run it through a debugger and get variable names.

At compile time, the compiler strips off the name of the constant, and replaces all occurrences of the constant in the code with the address of its location in memory (which is usually the same byte offset as inside the executable). Because of this, the original variable naming of the constant is lost, leaving only the value. Hence, the reason you can't find the constants anywhere.

Something that I would do to try to find the secret token, is capture all the data traffic that the app creates, and then look for the same patterns in the binary. If the token is indeed in there, and it isn't obfuscated somehow, then at least that narrows it down for you greatly.

Good luck! RE can be very rewarding but sometimes it really sucks.