iphone-backup-decrypt

Decrypt an encrypted, local iPhone backup created from iOS13 or newer. This code is mainly a wrapper for this StackOverflow answer, itself based on the iphone-dataprotection code.

Install

Requires Python 3.8 or higher.

The backup decryption keys are protected using 10 million rounds of PBKDF2 with SHA256, then 10 thousand further iterations of PBKDF2 with SHA-1. To speed up decryption, fastpbkdf2 is desirable; otherwise the code will fall back to using pycryptodome's implementation. The fallback is ~50% slower at the initial backup decryption step, but does not require the complicated build and install of fastpbkdf2.

Install via pip:

pip install iphone_backup_decrypt
# Optionally:
pip install fastpbkdf2

Or if you have Docker, an alternative is to use the pre-built image: ghcr.io/jsharkey13/iphone_backup_decrypt. A Command Prompt example might look like:

docker run --rm -it ^
    -v "%AppData%/Apple Computer/MobileSync/Backup/[device-specific-hash]":/backup:ro ^
    -v "%cd%/output":/output ^
    ghcr.io/jsharkey13/iphone_backup_decrypt

Usage

This code decrypts the backup using the passphrase chosen when encrypted backups were enabled in iTunes.

The relativePath of the file(s) to be decrypted also needs to be known. Very common files, like those for the call history or text message databases, can be found in the RelativePath class: e.g. use RelativePath.CALL_HISTORY instead of the full Library/CallHistoryDB/CallHistory.storedata.

More complex matching, particularly for non-unique filenames, may require specifying the domain of the files. The DomainLike and MatchFiles classes contain common domains and domain-path pairings.

If the relative path is not known, you can manually open the Manifest.db SQLite database and explore the Files table to find those of interest. After creating the class, use the EncryptedBackup.save_manifest_file(...) method to store a decrypted version.

A minimal example to decrypt and extract some files might look like:

from iphone_backup_decrypt import EncryptedBackup, RelativePath, MatchFiles

passphrase = "..."  # Or load passphrase more securely from stdin, or a file, etc.
backup_path = "%AppData%/Apple Computer/MobileSync/Backup/[device-specific-hash]"
# Or MacOS: "/Users/[user]/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/[device-hash]"

backup = EncryptedBackup(backup_directory=backup_path, passphrase=passphrase)

# Extract the call history SQLite database:
backup.extract_file(relative_path=RelativePath.CALL_HISTORY, 
                    output_filename="./output/call_history.sqlite")

# Extract the camera roll, using MatchFiles for combined path and domain matching:
backup.extract_files(**MatchFiles.CAMERA_ROLL, output_folder="./output/camera_roll")

# Extract WhatsApp SQLite database and attachments:
backup.extract_file(relative_path=RelativePath.WHATSAPP_MESSAGES,
                    output_filename="./output/whatsapp.sqlite")
backup.extract_files(**MatchFiles.WHATSAPP_ATTACHMENTS,
                     output_folder="./output/whatsapp", preserve_folders=False)

# Extract Strava workouts:
backup.extract_files(**MatchFiles.STRAVA_WORKOUTS, output_folder="./output/strava")

Alternatives

This library aims to be minimal, providing only what is necessary to extract encrypted files. There are alternatives which claim to offer similar or more advanced functionality:

• KnugiHK/iphone_backup_decrypt, a fork of this library and part of Whatsapp-Chat-Exporter.
• jfarley248/iTunes_Backup_Reader, which uses an older version of this library.
• datatags/mount-ios-backup, which uses an older version of this library.
• avibrazil/iOSbackup a similar Python library with a friendlier interface for exploring a backup.
• MaxiHuHe04/iTunes-Backup-Explorer, a Java based alternative with a GUI.