Merlin Chlosta mrlnc

I like to keep a local copy for any cloud-stored data, and so I regularly pull full backups from Apple's iCloud. On privacy.apple.com you can request a full archive for any of Apple's cloud services. Unfortunately, this somewhat broke in early 2024 and the ZIP archives have been corrupted since:

iCloud Drive Part 1 of 6.zip Decompression failed.

I wasn't able to pull any working archive for quite a while, and since Apple doesn't have a bugtracker for these type of things, here's just my notes on the issue.

At least here, the issue seems to be related to file path encoding.

SIMtrace2 has a serial debug interface. It requires a serial-over-audio-jack cable that sysmocom sells in their webshop.

The serial output looks like this:

=============================================================================
SIMtrace2 firmware 0.8.1.66-e6e7, BOARD=simtrace, APP=trace
(C) 2010-2019 by Harald Welte, 2018-2019 by Kevin Redon
=============================================================================
-I- Chip ID: 0x28900960 (Ext 0x00000000)

I'd like to look at files from the iOS 16 filesystem. It's super easy, so easy that everybody except me seems to just know.

tl;dr: unzip the ipsw-file and double-click on the biggest dmg file to mount the iOS file system.

Unzip the ipsw:

$ unzip iPhone14,4_16.0_20A5339d_Restore.ipsw

Vodafone CallYa Germany (26202)

EF.CBMIR:

pySIM-shell (MF/ADF.USIM/EF.CBMIR)> read_binary_decoded 
{"type": "cmd", "cmd": "00a40004026f50", "rsp": "6129"}
{"type": "cmd", "cmd": "00c0000029", "rsp": "62278202412183026f50a50f800171c0010091047f206f509201008a01058b036f06048002001488009000"}
{"type": "cmd", "cmd": "00b0000014", "rsp": "00000001110011021112111b111f1127ffffffff9000"}
[
    [
        {

Trying to convert a plist file to JSON but plutil is giving you a hard time?

I want the CellBroadcast as JSON:

plutil -extract CellBroadcast json -o - test.plist

That fails despite it should not:

test.plist: invalid object in plist for destination format

	{
	"distance_influence": 15,

	"priority": [
	{
	"if": "bike_network == INTERNATIONAL",
	"multiply_by": "10"
	},
	{
	"if": "bike_network == NATIONAL",

	If you followed a podcast by URL in Apple Podcasts, unfollowed it, and now can’t re-add it, follow these steps:

	tl;dr: Adding # or ?1 at the end of the URL tricks Apple Podcasts into treating it as new.

	- Open Apple Podcasts.
	- Go to "Add by URL" and paste the feed URL.
	- Modify the URL slightly to bypass the cache. For example:
	Change https://example.com/feed to https://example.com/feed#

	- Follow the podcast as usual.

	#!/bin/bash
	DRIVER_DIR="/home/merlin/src-for-11p/linux/drivers/net/wireless/ath/"

	INTERFACE="wlp2s0"
	MONITOR_INTERFACE=$INTERFACE-monitor

	FILE="v2x_%F_%H:%M:%S.pcap"
	OUTPUT_DIR="/home/merlin/PCAPs/"

	echo "Unloading modules. Some errors might occur if the modules are not actually loaded."


	$ iw phy
	Wiphy phy0
	wiphy index: 0
	max # scan SSIDs: 10
	max scan IEs length: 2048 bytes
	max # sched scan SSIDs: 16
	max # match sets: 16
	Retry short limit: 7
	Retry long limit: 4

	<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
	<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
	<plist version="1.0">
	<dict>
	<key>CellBroadcast</key>
	<dict>
	<key>AlertConfigurations</key>
	<dict>
	<key>Configuration_de</key>
	<dict>