Ecosyste.ms: Awesome

An open API service indexing awesome lists of open source software.

Awesome Lists | Featured Topics | Projects

https://github.com/biscuitehh/MarzipanPlatter

UIKit + macOS
https://github.com/biscuitehh/MarzipanPlatter

macos reverse-engineering swift uikit wwdc18

Last synced: 23 days ago
JSON representation

UIKit + macOS

Awesome Lists containing this project

README 

        
# Marzipan Platter

## tl;dr

![Gifs are all the rage in Paris](https://github.com/biscuitehh/MarzipanPlatter/raw/master/assets/demo1.gif)



## Overview

At WWDC 2018 Apple announced that they are working on a multi-year strategy to make it easier to port UIKit applications to the Mac. While some first-party applications such as the Home & News app are going to use this API in macOS 10.14, third-party developers won't have _official_ access for another year. As a result, I made this project to help tinkerers/other impatient people get a taste of what's to come when Apple gives everyone access to Marzipan next year.



## Requirements/Notes

- macOS 10.14 Mojave & Xcode 10 (note: apparently Virtual Machines *do not* work with Marzipan, so you'll need a real Mac/Hackintosh to make magic happen)

- Disabling SIP & adding the `amfi_get_out_of_my_way=0x1` to your `boot-args` (Hopefully we can circumvent the entitlement check with a less brutish method in the near future)

- Requires [jtool](http://www.newosxbook.com/tools/jtool.html) to parse the MachO loader commands.

- Requires [optool](https://github.com/alexzielenski/optool) to edit the MachO header of our _almost_ final product.

- Patience

- No longer requires any environment variables because the best rules are no rules.

- Still probably requires a beer or two.



## Caveats

- Requires you to disable SIP & add `amfi_get_out_of_my_way=0x1` to your `boot-args`. There has to be a better way.

- Seems to crash my debugger/Mac a lot (not sure if this is a me or a Mojave beta issue)

- The `UIKitSystem` process doesn't usually stop running when you stop debugging your app. It's best if you leave `sshd` open (I mean we already killed code signing, what's the worst that could happen) and connected so you can kill `UIKitSystem` if your development machine locks up. Thanks goes to [@stroughtonsmith](https://twitter.com/stroughtonsmith) and [@_inside](https://twitter.com/_inside) for the gnarly tip!



## Build instructions

- Install Xcode 10, go to Preferences -> Locations -> select Xcode 10 for Command Line Tools

- Disable SIP and AMFI:

  - boot into Recovery Mode (hold Cmd+R while rebooting), open Terminal from menu bar

  - `csrutil disable`

  - `nvram boot-args="amfi_get_out_of_my_way=0x1"`

- Get jtool and optool:

  - [Download jtool binary](http://www.newosxbook.com/tools/jtool.tar)

  - `git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/alexzielenski/optool.git`

  - open `optool/optool.xcodeproj`, hit Build

- Configure Xcode project

  - Open `MarzipanPlatter/MarzipanPlatter.xcodeproj`, go to MarzipanPlatter in sidebar -> MarzipanPlatter target -> General

  - Change Signing -> Team to your team, let Xcode regenerate provisioning profiles

  - Go to Build Settings tab, and set the `JTOOL_PATH` and `OPTOOL_PATH` user-defined settings to the respective locations where you installed `jtool`/`optool`

  - Also, you can set the `IOSMAC_PLATFORM_NAME` user-definied setting to either `iosmac` or `macos`. `iosmac` will use the linking magic to create an `iOSMac` binary and `macos` will create a patched `macOS` binary that requires the `CFMZEnabled=1` environment variable to be set before launching the app. However, you can also link things like `AppKit` with a `macOS` binary.

 - Hit Run (or use the CLI method below)



## Build Release & Run (from the CLI)

If you're running into _oh my goodness my Mac keeps dying_ issues when debugging, I've provided some simple instructions to create a release version of your Marzipan app.



To build the archive: 

`xcodebuild archive -scheme MarzipanPlatter -archivePath ./build/MarzipanPlatter.xcarchive`



To export the `.app` from the archive: 

`xcodebuild -exportArchive -archivePath ./build/MarzipanPlatter.xcarchive -exportOptionsPlist ExportOptions.plist -exportPath ./build/`



To run `MarzipanPlatter` with the useful `CFMZEnabled` environment variable:

`./build/MarzipanPlatter.app/Contents/MacOS/MarzipanPlatter`



Or just use this one-liner:

```

xcodebuild archive -scheme MarzipanPlatter -archivePath ./build/MarzipanPlatter.xcarchive && xcodebuild -exportArchive -archivePath ./build/MarzipanPlatter.xcarchive -exportOptionsPlist ExportOptions.plist -exportPath ./build/ && ./build/MarzipanPlatter.app/Contents/MacOS/MarzipanPlatter

```



## TODO

- [ ] find a better way to run Marzipan apps without disabling important things like AMFI/SIP.

- [ ] continue adding samples to make this project sizzle.

- [ ] find a better way to debug Marzipan apps that doesn't involve rebooting my Mac every 30 minutes.

- [ ] write up an explaination of why you have to disable SIP/AMFI

- [ ] fix these TODOs



## Thanks

- A big shout out to [@stroughtonsmith](https://twitter.com/stroughtonsmith) for sanity checking my approach to this problem/figuring out why UILabel decided to derp.

- [@s1guza](https://twitter.com/s1guza) for [tbdump](https://github.com/Siguza/tbdump)

- [@zhuowei](https://twitter.com/zhuowei) for coming up with the clever `ldwrap` method. Definitely check out the MarzipanTool repo listed below.

- [@Morpheus______](https://twitter.com/Morpheus______) for the awesome `jtool` and `*OS Internals` books that have taught me many things.



## Related Projects

- [MarzipanTool](https://github.com/zhuowei/MarzipanTool) - Tools to build and run iOS UIKit applications on macOS 10.14 Mojave, using the iOSMac framework announced at WWDC.



## Questions/Comments

It's probably best if you leave an issue if you have a real problem with this code. However, you can tweet/DM me [@NSBiscuit](https://twitter.com/NSBiscuit) on Twitter if you want to chat about life/snakes/random thoughts/etc.