# ipsw

> Command-line toolkit for Apple firmware research and reverse engineering. It downloads and unpacks IPSWs, OTAs and KDKs and compares builds; inspects Mach-O load commands, symbols, signatures and entitlements with ARM64 disassembly; finds symbols and cross-references in dyld shared caches, extracts dylibs and dumps Objective-C headers and Swift metadata; extracts KEXTs and compares kernelcaches; and parses IMG4, decrypts AEA archives and inspects iBoot and coprocessor firmware.

- Type: Tool
- Targets: App · Binary · Firmware
- Category: Firmware tools
- Relationship: Foundation tool
- Sources reviewed: 2026-10-18
- Added to the catalog: 2026-10-19
- Original resource: <https://github.com/blacktop/ipsw>
- Primary source: <https://github.com/blacktop/ipsw/blob/a9eae76e8b1e901e4a03dd530defac8a1b33f91a/README.md>
- Catalog page: <https://awesomerea.org/resources/ipsw/>
- Record JSON: <https://awesomerea.org/resources/ipsw/record.json>
- Chinese version: [简体中文](https://awesomerea.org/zh/resources/ipsw/index.md)

## Requirements & limits

- Release at review: v3.1.739, published 2026-10-16, with Linux, macOS, Windows and iOS builds plus deb, rpm, apk and Arch packages; the reviewed master commit is three cache and documentation commits ahead. Install with Homebrew (tap or core formula), snap or Scoop. The extras build (Unicorn-based dyld emulation, libusb device commands) and the Frida build are macOS only. Source builds need a C toolchain for CGO and, per the README, Go 1.26+, although go.mod declares go 1.27.
- Firmware, caches and binaries are supplied by the user or fetched with the download commands. With --dec, macho disass and dyld disass send disassembly to the LLM provider chosen with --dec-llm: hosted OpenAI-compatible, Anthropic, Gemini or router APIs, ACP agent CLIs, or local Ollama. The separate ipswd daemon exposes a REST API, and the README points agents to the separate ipsw-skill repository.
- MIT license. The README notes that extracted dylibs can still reference metadata elsewhere in the cache, so it recommends Objective-C analysis on the cache itself. LLM decompilation output is model-generated and needs verification.

## Primary sources

1. <https://github.com/blacktop/ipsw/blob/a9eae76e8b1e901e4a03dd530defac8a1b33f91a/README.md>
2. <https://github.com/blacktop/ipsw/blob/a9eae76e8b1e901e4a03dd530defac8a1b33f91a/README.md#L68-L80>
3. <https://github.com/blacktop/ipsw/blob/a9eae76e8b1e901e4a03dd530defac8a1b33f91a/README.md#L137-L168>
4. <https://github.com/blacktop/ipsw/blob/a9eae76e8b1e901e4a03dd530defac8a1b33f91a/www/docs/guides/decompiler.md>
5. <https://github.com/blacktop/ipsw/blob/a9eae76e8b1e901e4a03dd530defac8a1b33f91a/www/docs/getting-started/installation.md>
6. <https://github.com/blacktop/ipsw/blob/a9eae76e8b1e901e4a03dd530defac8a1b33f91a/go.mod>
7. <https://github.com/blacktop/ipsw/blob/a9eae76e8b1e901e4a03dd530defac8a1b33f91a/LICENSE>
8. <https://github.com/blacktop/ipsw/releases/tag/v3.1.739>

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## About this entry

The description was reviewed against primary sources.
Original editorial content: MIT. Linked projects, papers and assets retain their own rights and licenses.