IDA 9+ Plugin for Swift String Demangling

ProHex TutorialsProfessional · August 30, 2025

Sharing my revision of https://github.com/keowu/swiftstringinspector which worked fine, but didnt provide what I needed. So, basically here is a vastly improved version made by me, built on the github repo:

Changes made:

1. Multiple String Detection Patterns

Pattern 1: Original ADRL/SUB pattern
Pattern 2: ADRP/ADD pattern for page-based addressing
Inline strings: Detection of small strings stored directly in MOV instructions
C strings: Scanning of __cstring section including Swift mangled symbols

2. Advanced Swift Structure Analysis

Type Metadata Scanner: Finds Swift type information in __swift5_types
Protocol Scanner: Detects protocol conformances
Enhanced Array Scanner: Better analysis of Swift array structures with count/capacity info

3. Objective-C Bridge Support

ObjC Selector Detection: Finds Objective-C selectors used in Swift
@objc Class Detection: Identifies Swift classes bridged to Objective-C
Essential for iOS apps that mix Swift and Objective-C

4. Cross-Reference Tracking

Tracks all references to discovered strings
Shows which functions use which strings
Helps understand code flow and string usage

5. Enhanced UI

Organized groups: Logical grouping of related functions
Platform detection: Shows if analyzing iOS ARM64 binary
Statistics view: Binary analysis statistics
Debug mode toggle: Runtime debug control

6. Utility Features

Export functionality: Save scan results to text files
Comprehensive scan: Combines all detection methods
Deduplication: Removes duplicate findings
Better error handling: Safe memory reading with fallbacks

7. Performance & Reliability

Progress indicators with show_wait_box
Caching mechanisms for better performance
Safe memory access with proper exception handling
UTF-8 decoding with error recovery

Just put the plugin (put in a file with .py extension) in the plugin folder of IDA (version 9+ is a MUST).

Python Script File:

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Updated August 30, 2025 by Rook