MachIDE: Building a Native macOS IDE for Mach-O Decompilation from Scratch

#reverseengineering #macos #rust

Introducing MachIDE: Native macOS IDE for Binary Analysis

As developers and reverse engineers, having a robust, fast, and reliable IDE for analyzing Mach-O binaries is a game-changer. Today, I'm excited to share MachIDE – a fully native macOS IDE for disassembly, decompilation, patching, and dynamic instrumentation, with all data stored locally and zero external APIs.

Why MachIDE?

Existing reverse engineering tools often rely on external services or lack tight integration with macOS. MachIDE is designed to:

Analyze Mach-O binaries natively on macOS (arm64 & x86_64)
Decompile to human-readable pseudocode with cross-links to disassembly
Visualize control flow graphs (CFGs) for functions
Patch binaries safely with atomic undo/redo
Support dynamic analysis and instrumentation in sandboxed processes
Run plugins securely, isolated from the main app
Store all user data locally (projects, snapshots, cache) in SQLite

Core Features

Native Swift + Rust Architecture

SwiftUI + AppKit for the frontend
Rust backend for safe, high-performance memory management and analysis
IPC via UNIX domain sockets, all local and sandboxed

Extensible Plugin Ecosystem

Isolated process per plugin
Explicit capability granting
Event-driven IPC
Safe CPU/memory limits and execution timeouts

Comprehensive Analysis Workflow

Binary parsing & section analysis
Disassembly + Low-level IR generation
SSA transform, type inference, and CFG reconstruction
Pretty-printed pseudocode output with confidence scores
Undo/redo snapshots for every analysis and patch

Interactive UI & UX

Hex editor with inline editing
Disassembly and decompiler views with cross-links
CFG and call graph visualizations
Project outline, console, inspector, toolbar, and status bar
Smooth animations, tooltips, split views, and keyboard shortcuts

Security & Reliability

Sandboxed plugin processes
Optional AES-256 encryption per project
Checksum verification for all binaries and patches
Full offline operation – no network dependency

Getting Started

You can check out the repository and instructions here:

GitHub Repo: MachIDE


bash
git clone https://github.com/kawacukennedy/machide.git
cd machide
# Follow build instructions in the README

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