frida-ios-hook wraps Frida's iOS instrumentation behind a single command line tool
A tool that helps you easy trace classes, functions, and modify the return values of methods on iOS platform
At a glance
- What is it?
- frida-ios-hook is a Python wrapper around Frida for iOS that bundles tracing, method hooking, IPA dumping, memory dumping and hex pattern scanning behind one ioshook entry point. It is a dynamic instrumentation tool for people who already work with Frida, not a substitute for learning it.
- Who is it for?
- frida-ios-hook suits a security researcher or developer who already knows Frida and wants the common iOS jobs in one place, since the wrapper saves you from hand-rolling the spawn and attach invocations, the SSH tunnel and the device listings every time. It is the wrong tool if you are new to dynamic instrumentation, because the tool inherits Frida's concepts without explaining them, and the usage documentation lives on a wiki rather than in the repository.
- Can I use it commercially?
- Yes. MIT is a permissive licence: you can use, modify and sell software built on it, as long as you keep its copyright and licence notices.
- Is it still maintained?
- Yes. The repository last received commits 171 days ago.
- What is it written in?
- Mainly JavaScript, according to GitHub's language statistics.
Answers come from the project's GitHub data, last synced on October 22, 2026, and from our analysis. They are not legal advice.
Editorial analysis
The wrapper targets iOS, with a separate project for Android
The project is described as a tool that helps you easily trace classes, functions, and modify the return values of methods on the iOS platform, and the naming makes the scope obvious: frida-ios-hook is the iOS member of a family, with a companion project for Android linked from the top of the README. It also points at a sibling project for intercepting encrypted APIs in an iOS application. So the design intent is a thin, opinionated shell around Frida rather than a new instrumentation engine. The primary language of the repository is JavaScript, which refers to the Frida scripts the tool drives, while the wrapper itself is Python, since the requirements file lists Python packages and the setup.py installs a shell entry point that dispatches to core/hook.py. The tool runs under python3.x and supports both spawn and attach scripting, which is the distinction that matters most when you point it at a target.
Two dozen options in six groups, and the quick methods that do the work
The option table is the real documentation, and it is grouped into General, Quick Method, Information, Dump decrypt IPA, Dump memory, HexByte Scan IPA and reFlutter. The General group covers the help output, the interactive CLI launched with --cli, the target selection through -p for a bundle identifier when spawning, -n for a display name when attaching and --pid for a process id, the script path with -s, and the update checks -c and -u. The group that changes the character of the tool is Quick Method, where -m takes a method name: app-static, bypass-jb, bypass-ssl, i-url-req and i-crypto, and it needs -n or -p depending on whether you attach or spawn. Those are ready made Frida scripts shipped with the project, so you run a known trace without writing the hook yourself. The remaining groups are device and app discovery, and the dumping and patching tools described below.
The device helpers cover the parts of Frida that live outside the process
A large part of what the wrapper does is not hooking at all, but the surrounding plumbing that a Frida user otherwise writes by hand for every session. The Information group lists all connected Frida devices with --list-devices, all installed applications on a device with --list-apps, and all available Frida scripts with --list-scripts. The --logcat option shows the device system log, using idevicesyslog, which saves you from remembering that utility's name and flags. The SSH group opens a shell to the device with --shell or --ssh, defaulting to USB through iproxy, and it can forward a port from local to device with --ssh-port-forward, connect over the network with --network taking a HOST:PORT and a default port of 22, or force the USB path with --local. The --conf option opens and edits the hook.conf file, and the tool creates its workspace folders, including the dumps directory, when it is set up.
Dumping an IPA, dumping memory and patching hex patterns are separate commands
Three groups cover work that happens outside the live process. The Dump decrypt IPA group has -d or --dump-app to dump and decrypt an application IPA file, -o for the output filename without the .ipa extension, and --dump-output-dir for the output directory, which defaults to workspaces/dumps. The Dump memory group takes --dump-memory with options, and the description gives two examples, --string and --read-only. The HexByte Scan IPA group is the most configurable, with --hexbyte-scan taking a mode of help, scan, patch or json, a --file option for the IPA to scan or patch, a --pattern option for the hex pattern to search with an example like E103??AA????E0, an --address option in the format address,bytes,distance, and a --task option for a JSON task file. The mode list explains the shape of the workflow, since a scan finds candidate offsets, a patch applies one, and json is the machine readable form of the result.
Version pinning is deliberate, because a newer Frida broke Objective-C
The requirements file pins exact versions, and the reason is documented rather than incidental. The requirements list frida==16.1.4 and frida-tools==12.2.1, alongside colorlog, scp, requests, paramiko, tqdm, psutil and reflutter. The compatibility table records that on iOS 16.7.11 the combination of Frida 16.1.4 with frida-tools 12.2.1 is the supported and stable one, while a newer Frida 16.7.14 with frida-tools 13.7.1 is listed as supported but not marked stable. The reason is a note pointing at an issue about ObjC not being defined that is present in frida 17.0.1, and the instruction is to use stable versions to fix it. So if you hit an Objective-C problem after upgrading Frida, the answer is to go back rather than to debug your own script. The tool also ships a reFlutter option for Flutter IPA analysis, and the requirements include reflutter for that path.
Installing means a virtualenv, a pip install and a setup.py run
The setup is a conventional Python packaging flow, and the documentation keeps the numbering slightly inconsistent, which is worth noting if you follow it literally. The environment section starts at step 1 with cd frida-ios-hook, step 2 creates a virtual environment with python3 -m venv py-env, and step 3 activates it with source py-env/bin/active. The build section then lists pip3 install -r requirements.txt, python3 setup.py, cd frida-ios-hook, and finally ./ioshook -h to print the help.
cd frida-ios-hook/
python3 -m venv py-env
source py-env/bin/active
pip3 install -r requirements.txt
python3 setup.py
cd frida-ios-hook
./ioshook -h (--help)The install section points at two sources, the releases page for the latest version and a dev branch clone for the development version. The build itself is a thin wrapper: setup.py writes a small launcher that shells out to core/hook.py, preferring python3 when it is on the path and falling back to python, and passes your arguments straight through. The repository also keeps a WIKI.md at the root and points to a wiki for the full usage documentation, plus a CHANGELOG.md and a pre-commit configuration.
What the project does not tell you, and where the boundaries are
Two gaps are worth naming before you commit time to this tool. The first is documentation depth: the README states the option table and then defers the full usage to a wiki, so the in-repository documentation covers the command surface and the setup, not the behaviour of each script. The second is the disclaimer at the end of the README, where the author notes that he is not a developer and that his coding skills might not be the best, and asks for issues and suggestions in return. That is a candid statement about maintenance risk, and it should shape your expectations about support. On the usage side, the tool is for inspecting and modifying applications on devices you are authorised to test. Several of its quick methods exist to defeat protections such as jailbreak detection and certificate pinning, which is exactly the kind of capability that is only legitimate against your own app, your own device or a client that has authorised the work, and the responsibility for that authorisation sits with the person running it. The tool also notes the macOS and Linux hosts are stable while Windows is unstable, and that frida 16.1.4 is the pinned version the project builds against.
Editorial conclusion
frida-ios-hook suits a security researcher or developer who already knows Frida and wants the common iOS jobs in one place, since the wrapper saves you from hand-rolling the spawn and attach invocations, the SSH tunnel and the device listings every time. It is the wrong tool if you are new to dynamic instrumentation, because the tool inherits Frida's concepts without explaining them, and the usage documentation lives on a wiki rather than in the repository. Before you rely on it, pin your Frida version deliberately, since the project ships a fixed frida==16.1.4 with frida-tools==12.2.1 and notes that newer Frida releases had an Objective-C problem, and check that the combination of iOS, Frida and frida-tools in the compatibility table matches your device. The licence is MIT, release v3.11 shipped on 2026-02-05, and the last push was on 2026-05-05.
Frequently asked questions
What does frida-ios-hook actually do?
It is a Python wrapper around Frida for the iOS platform that helps with tracing classes and functions and modifying method return values. It supports both spawn and attach scripting and exposes tracing, dumping and hex pattern scanning through a single ioshook command.
Which Frida version should I use with frida-ios-hook?
The requirements pin frida==16.1.4 with frida-tools==12.2.1, and the compatibility table marks that pair as the stable one on iOS 16.7.11. The project notes that a newer Frida had an ObjC not defined issue present in frida 17.0.1 and advises using stable versions to fix it.
How do I install frida-ios-hook?
Create a virtual environment with python3 -m venv py-env, activate it, run pip3 install -r requirements.txt, then python3 setup.py. The entry point is then available as ./ioshook, and ./ioshook -h prints the option list.
What do the quick methods in frida-ios-hook do?
The -m or --method option takes a method name from app-static, bypass-jb, bypass-ssl, i-url-req and i-crypto, and runs a ready made Frida script. You also need -n for attach or -p for spawn, depending on the target.
Can I dump and decrypt an IPA with frida-ios-hook?
Yes. The -d or --dump-app option dumps and decrypts an application IPA file, with -o setting the output filename and --dump-output-dir setting the directory, which defaults to workspaces/dumps. There is also a --dump-memory option and a --hexbyte-scan mode for scanning, patching or exporting patterns from an IPA.
Official sources
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