How to monitor network calls made from iOS Simulat

Question

I am trying to monitor calls from an app to my server just like Firebug does. I could not find a way to see that in iOS Simulator or in xCode.

Is there a way to do that without sniffing all the traffic? If no, what tool would you suggest?

Answer 1

A good solution if you are used to the chrome inspector tools is Pony debugger: https://github.com/square/PonyDebugger

It is a bit of a pain to setup, but once you do it work well. Be sure to use Safari instead of Chrome to use it though.

Answer 2

A man-in-the-middle proxy, like suggested by other answers, is a good solution if you only want to see HTTP/HTTPS traffic. Burp Suite is pretty good. It may be a pain to configure though. I'm not sure how you would convince the simulator to talk to it. You might have to set the proxy on your local Mac to your instance of a proxy server in order for it to intercept, since the simulator will make use of your local Mac's environment.

The best solution for packet sniffing (though it only works for actual iOS devices, not the simulator) I've found is to use rvictl. This blog post has a nice writeup. Basically you do:

rvictl -s <iphone-uid-from-xcode-organizer>

Then you sniff the interface it creates with with Wireshark (or your favorite tool), and when you're done shut down the interface with:

rvictl -x <iphone-uid-from-xcode-organizer>

This is nice because if you want to packet sniff the simulator, you're having to wade through traffic to your local Mac as well, but rvictl creates a virtual interface that just shows you the traffic from the iOS device you've plugged into your USB port.

Answer 3

Personally, I use Charles for that kind of stuff.
When enabled, it will monitor every network request, displaying extended request details, including support for SSL and various request/reponse format, like JSON, etc...

You can also configure it to sniff only requests to specific servers, not the whole traffic.

It's commercial software, but there is a trial, and IMHO it's definitively a great tool.

Answer 4

If you have cable connection and Mac, then there is simple and powerful method:

1. install free Wireshark, make sure that it can capture devices with (and you need to do this after every computer restart!):

   sudo chmod 644 /dev/bpf*

2. Now share your network with wifi. System preferences > Sharing > Internet Sharing. Check that you have "Share your connections from: Ethernet" and using: Wi-Fi. You may want to also to configure some wifi security, it does not disturb your data monitoring.

3. Connect your phone to your newly created network. I need quite often several attempts here. If the phone does not want to connect, turn of wifi of Mac, then repeat step 2 above and be patient.

4. Start Wireshark capture your wireless interface with Wireshark, it is probably "en1". Filter your needed IP addresses and/or ports. When you find a package which is interesting, select it, Right-click (context menu) > Follow TCP Stream and you see nice text representation of the requests and answers.

And what is the best: exactly the same trick works for Android also!

Answer 5

Wireshark it

Select your interface

Add filter start the capture

---

Testing

Click on any action or button that would trigger a GET/POST/PUT/DELETE request

You will see it on listed in the wireshark

If you want to know more details about one specific packet, just select it and Follow > HTTP Stream.

hope this help others !!