Tutorial Ultimate Guide: Debugging iOS Games on iPhone with IDA Pro + debugserver

[Lolite 6.6k iPhone 7 15.8.3]

   Here’s a simple step-by-step tutorial on how to attach any iOS game running on your iPhone directly to IDA Pro for live debugging

 

Spoiler

 

important first connect via putty from  2️⃣ Enable OpenSSH on Your iPhone

 

1️⃣ Create a Separate SSH Tunnel from CMD

Open Command Prompt on your PC and run:

ssh -L 1234:localhost:1234 [email protected]

 

Replace 192.168.100.14 with your iPhone’s Wi-Fi IP address and , Make sure your iPhone and PC are on the same Wi-Fi network

 

Example:

ssh -L 1234:localhost:1234 [email protected]

 

 

2️⃣ Enable OpenSSH on Your iPhone

• Open 3uTools (64-bit) on your PC.

• Go to Toolbox → Enable OpenSSH Tunnel

 

 

 

 

3️⃣ Connect to iPhone via PuTTY

• Open PuTTY.

• Hostname: 127.0.0.1

• Port: 23

• Login with username: mobile

 

 

4️⃣ Find the Target Game’s PID

Once connected via PuTTY, launch the game on your iPhone and run on PuTTY :

ps -ax

 

Or search directly by game name 

Example:

ps -ax | grep "hcrwc iOS.app" | grep -v grep

Example output:

36589 ??  2:20.28 /var/containers/Bundle/Application/75DF6E3B-B832-437C-BC83-4E470BAFF99D/hcrwc iOS.app

 

Here, 36589 is the game’s PID

 

5️⃣ Attach debugserver to the Game

In PuTTY run:

debugserver '*:1234' --attach=36589

 

6️⃣ Connect IDA Pro to Your iPhone

On your PC:

1. Open IDA Pro.

2. Go to Debugger → Select debugger → Remote GDB debugger.

3. Set:

   • Hostname: localhost

   • Port: 1234

4. Click OK to connect

 

 

 

 

✅ Once connected, IDA Pro will pull the symbols and live disassembly from your iPhone, allowing you to set breakpoints, trace memory, and fully control the game in real-time.

 

🎉 Congrats! You’ve successfully attached IDA Pro to an iOS game

 

 

 

@Lolite

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Updated August 8 by Lolite

[AlyssaX64 117.2k iPhone X 13.5]

Nice

[Batch 7.8k iPhone 7 15.7]

This is amazing! Good job 😮 

[Laxus 802k iPhone 5s 10.3.3]

New guide!!!! This is awesome thank you  

[Rakunera 82 iPhone 14 Pro Max 18.0]

@Lolite can we use CyberDuck as an alternative for PuTTy for MacOS?

[Puddin 84.9k iPhone 14 Pro Max 17.0 Donor]

Nice guide, thank you.

[Lolite 6.6k iPhone 7 15.8.3]

46 minutes ago, Rakunera said:

@Lolite can we use CyberDuck as an alternative for PuTTy for MacOS?

yes

[Rakunera 82 iPhone 14 Pro Max 18.0]

15 minutes ago, Lolite said:

yes

Thank you very much once again for this! 

[iosdevice 8.9k iPad (7th gen) 17.5.1 Donor]

APPRECIATE YOU FOR THIS TUTORIAL

[ORBIUS 116 iPhone 16 Pro Max 18.4]

ty