General Returning to IOS Modding (Helpful Tips Appreciated)

Game Sphere · August 27, 2024

Hello, everyone!

It's been quite some time since I have dabbled in Jailbreaks, Non-Jailbreak IOS App Mods, and everything in-between. I'm talking sometime around 2016 would be the last time I had a jailbroken device (untethered).
I would love to refresh my knowledge in hopes of doing some "Non-Jailbroken" IOS App Mods, as well as how the landscape has changed over the years for Jailbroken Devices (Is Untethered still required?)
I currently get my "Non-Jailbroken" IOS mods from the IOSGods Web App, though I would like to learn how to update apps that are requiring of it, instead of waiting for someone to do so.

I suppose my main questions are:

What program(s) are needed now in order to push my own updates?
Is an "Untethered Jailbreak" still something that people use? If not, how come?
Am I walking myself into something that I am too far out-of-date with?

I do have an Apple Developer Account, so signing apps shouldn't be an issue.
If there are any useful or helpful tutorials out there that I could dive into, I would love to do so. It's been quite some time since I have done anything like this, though I do have previous experience (though it be a long time ago) so I'm not diving into this *completely* blind.
I appreciate any tips, points in the right direction, or information into what I need to refresh myself on in order to release these kinds of "Non-Jailbroken" mods.

I have:

Windows PC (Windows 11)
M2 Macbook Air
iPhone 14Pro Max (IOS 17.4.1)
iPhone XS Max (IOS 16)

I appreciate any replies!

(If this is the wrong place for this post, please let me know!)

Edit:

I am looking at the Tutorials section as well, there are lots of great looking posts, though the reason I posted here is so that I could get some pointers on which tutorial(s) I should look at so that I am not wasting my time while trying to learn this stuff again!
> Additionally, I do not have IDA Pro and would love to hear thoughts on what the best alternatives are? Ghidra, Hopper (Mac)?

Updated June 11 by Game Sphere
Added Additional Information (See, Edit)

Game Sphere · June 11

Bumping this since I am still interested in hearing thoughts on this.

Thanks! 🫠

Puddin · June 16

1. il2cppDumper, Notepad++ / Visual Studio, and preferably a hex editor like HxD or Hex Workshop (for non-jb).
2. Untethered is dead, semi-untethered is the best we'll get nowadays.
3. You don't really need any experience or anything, just patience. As long as you know making cheats is trial & error, you should be fine.

Game Sphere · June 17

2 hours ago, Puddin said:

1. il2cppDumper, Notepad++ / Visual Studio, and preferably a hex editor like HxD or Hex Workshop (for non-jb).
2. Untethered is dead, semi-untethered is the best we'll get nowadays.
3. You don't really need any experience or anything, just patience. As long as you know making cheats is trial & error, you should be fine.

Thanks for the reply, that helps a ton.
I noticed that the Online IL2CPP Dumper that IOSGods previously provided in the ARM converter website is now disabled. I'll check out il2cpp dumper on GitHub and check that out.

Thankfully, I have some experience in modding PC games with CE, creating tables and such, so the trial and error part I have no issue with.
> I have a few old iPhones laying around so I'll check out what available semi-untethered for the IOS versions that they're on.

I don't have IDA Pro, and in your personal opinion, do you think it would be worth getting more familiar with Ghidra? I've used it in the past (lightly) and could do some interesting things reversing the ARM64 assembly, but my real question is, "Is Ghidra (or IDA Pro) really a necessary tool for creating small non-jb app modifications?"

Thanks again!

Puddin · June 17

7 hours ago, Game Sphere said:

Thanks for the reply, that helps a ton.
I noticed that the Online IL2CPP Dumper that IOSGods previously provided in the ARM converter website is now disabled. I'll check out il2cpp dumper on GitHub and check that out.

Thankfully, I have some experience in modding PC games with CE, creating tables and such, so the trial and error part I have no issue with.
> I have a few old iPhones laying around so I'll check out what available semi-untethered for the IOS versions that they're on.

I don't have IDA Pro, and in your personal opinion, do you think it would be worth getting more familiar with Ghidra? I've used it in the past (lightly) and could do some interesting things reversing the ARM64 assembly, but my real question is, "Is Ghidra (or IDA Pro) really a necessary tool for creating small non-jb app modifications?"

Thanks again!