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iPhone 11 Emulated on QEMU

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Re: iPhone 11 Emulated on QEMU

#31

Post by cyberpunk »

lucb1e wrote: post #3

With this, would it finally be possible to test iOS apps without having to first buy into the Apple ecosystem? Seems super helpful for developers, security testing, etc.

I'm really not trying to be rude, but if you're a serious developer, 'security person' or otherwise, the cost of entry for apple is not a problem.

I know I'll get abused probably for saying it, but I mean come on. An apple device is what, one days worth of consultancy time? For a security researcher maybe an hour? It's the cost of business.

If you're priced out of getting into that particular game (I was too, once) then do something adjacent and switch once you're earning 10k a year and can afford an apple device, if you really want to work on apple devices..

Re: iPhone 11 Emulated on QEMU

#32

Post by muttled »

trollied wrote: post #13
Nextgrid wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's technically already possible by installing/virtualizing macOS and giving the SMC emulator a plausible serial number - it's tolerated by Apple for now, however they can trivially block this (both for Hackintosh as well as this iOS emulator) by requiring a real serial number.

They have started to introduce random serials to some product lines: https://www.macrumors.com/2021/05/05/purple-iphone-12-random... I imagine this will be extended in the future so that they can begin to clamp down.

If you know a valid serial number (say from a decommissioned Mac) do you know if you're able to just use that or is there some sort of validation of the device to the serial number?

Re: iPhone 11 Emulated on QEMU

#33

Post by danuker »

cyberpunk wrote: post #31
lucb1e wrote: post #3

With this, would it finally be possible to test iOS apps without having to first buy into the Apple ecosystem? Seems super helpful for developers, security testing, etc.

I'm really not trying to be rude, but if you're a serious developer, 'security person' or otherwise, the cost of entry for apple is not a problem. I know I'll get abused probably for saying it, but I mean come on. An apple device is what, one days worth of consultancy time? For a security researcher maybe an hour? It's the cost of business. If you're priced out of getting into that particular game (I was too, once) t…

No post body was provided.

Re: iPhone 11 Emulated on QEMU

#34

Post by Ardon »

muttled wrote: post #32
trollied wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have started to introduce random serials to some product lines: https://www.macrumors.com/2021/05/05/purple-iphone-12-random... I imagine this will be extended in the future so that they can begin to clamp down.

If you know a valid serial number (say from a decommissioned Mac) do you know if you're able to just use that or is there some sort of validation of the device to the serial number?

There's no validation right now, but they could do that if they wanted to.

Re: iPhone 11 Emulated on QEMU

#35

Post by [deleted] »

cyberpunk wrote: post #31
lucb1e wrote: post #3

With this, would it finally be possible to test iOS apps without having to first buy into the Apple ecosystem? Seems super helpful for developers, security testing, etc.

I'm really not trying to be rude, but if you're a serious developer, 'security person' or otherwise, the cost of entry for apple is not a problem. I know I'll get abused probably for saying it, but I mean come on. An apple device is what, one days worth of consultancy time? For a security researcher maybe an hour? It's the cost of business. If you're priced out of getting into that particular game (I was too, once) t…

[deleted]

Re: iPhone 11 Emulated on QEMU

#36

Post by danuker »

lucb1e wrote: post #26
amelius wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't you need an Apple ID at some point? And doesn't it phone home and report you?

Good questions. I guess for eventual publishing, the app repository fees need to be paid indeed. That only applies to development and not security testing though.

There are some cases like free-software where you wouldn't need the app store.

Re: iPhone 11 Emulated on QEMU

#37

Post by cyberpunk »

danuker wrote: post #33
cyberpunk wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm really not trying to be rude, but if you're a serious developer, 'security person' or otherwise, the cost of entry for apple is not a problem. I know I'll get abused probably for saying it, but I mean come on. An apple device is what, one days worth of consultancy time? For a security researcher maybe an hour? It's the cost of business. If you're priced out of getting into that particular game (I was too, once) t…

Quoted post unavailable.

I'm not an apple fanboy. I do have a M1, but I once spent 4 months porting KDE to solaris 10 x86 to run on a hp probook (and even got paid to do it)... I routinely try to exit the apple ecosystem but it always costs me pain and time, which hasn't been worth it for a number of years now. looks at drawer of ubuntu dell XPS's, ThinkPads running openbsd, etc etc.

I've fucking TRIED... :(

It's been linux and bsd machines as clients for work for almost 20 years.. And yet I keep having to go back to OSX for reliability.

At some point you have to just accept certain things are the cost of business..

Re: iPhone 11 Emulated on QEMU

#38

Post by nomel »

danuker wrote: post #33
cyberpunk wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm really not trying to be rude, but if you're a serious developer, 'security person' or otherwise, the cost of entry for apple is not a problem. I know I'll get abused probably for saying it, but I mean come on. An apple device is what, one days worth of consultancy time? For a security researcher maybe an hour? It's the cost of business. If you're priced out of getting into that particular game (I was too, once) t…

Quoted post unavailable.

I think it could reasonably be called a development platform, with all the software included in its cost.

Re: iPhone 11 Emulated on QEMU

#39

Post by chrismorgan »

smackeyacky wrote: post #14
lucb1e wrote: post #3

With this, would it finally be possible to test iOS apps without having to first buy into the Apple ecosystem? Seems super helpful for developers, security testing, etc.

You can semi not buy into the apple ecosystem at the moment. Purchase a 2nd hand iphone and then run this Docker based OSX system: https://github.com/sickcodes/Docker-OSX It's fine for personal projects using something like usbfluxd to talk to your iphone from the docker container. I wouldn't rely on it to do commercial work.

The cheapest second hand iPhones that run the current version of iOS (but are right at the tail of any support) are on the high side of the price range of what I’ve ever spent on a new, primary phone that I expect to last me at least several years. (And although it’s not as common as the alternative, I’m hardly alone in not spending much on phones; now laptops, on the other hand—.) I don’t want to spend more on a device that I might use once every few months.

Re: iPhone 11 Emulated on QEMU

#40

Post by icelancer »

Nextgrid wrote: post #7
makach wrote: post #4

Ooohhh! This will be interesting from a reverse engineering perspective. Also, does that mean I can get iMessage on PC?

It's technically already possible by installing/virtualizing macOS and giving the SMC emulator a plausible serial number - it's tolerated by Apple for now, however they can trivially block this (both for Hackintosh as well as this iOS emulator) by requiring a real serial number.

I used a real serial number for this and still never had much success doing so, was a giant pain in the ass about a year ago.
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