IdeaWell

Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

Reverse engineer anything with agents, from app behavior down to native binaries

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

1. Apple’s AI/Siri shortcomings
- “focus and expertise. apple lacks both when it comes to AI. maybe it is strategic, maybe it is stupid hubris - we will soon figure out.” – NeumannGod
- “I dont know why Apple doesnt improve Siri. They have every resources on earth.” – tuyenhx

2. Curiosity and technical hurdles in reverse‑engineering Apple’s private APIs
- “Open challenge to anyone to use this framework and reverse engineer the internal APIs iPhone uses to talk to Siri or shortcuts or app Intents.” – NeumannGod
- “Meanwhile they haven’t had iOS jailbroken since iOS 17 four years ago.” – akmarinov
- “Curious if anyone has experimented with LLM's RE'ing obfuscated code. I suspect they handle it just fine.” – danjc

3. The gap between reversing APIs and actually being able to use them
- “It might reverse engineer them but that’s different from letting you use them.” – saagarjha
- “There's no obscurity anymore. Best you can do is keep as much as possible server side.” – danjc

🚀 Project Ideas

Generating project ideas…

OpenShortcut Builder

Summary

  • Enables non‑jailbroken iOS users to create and install custom Shortcuts that invoke private Siri intents via a companion MDM profile, bypassing Apple's restricted Siri API.
  • Core value: gives power users and developers programmable access to Siri's underlying capabilities without needing a jailbreak or reverse engineering.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience iOS power users, developers, automation enthusiasts
Core Feature Drag‑and‑drop shortcut builder that exports .shortcut files with embedded calls to private SiriKit intents, installed via a signed configuration profile
Tech Stack Electron (or Tauri) for desktop, SwiftUI for companion iOS app, MobileDevice framework for profile installation
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue-ready: Subscription $5/mo for premium templates and cloud sync

Notes

  • HN commenters expressed frustration: "I dont know why Apple doesnt improve Siri. They have every resources on earth." and "I need to try to see how things work." This tool lets them experiment.
  • Potential for discussion: could spark conversation about Apple's walled garden and provide a legitimate avenue for power users to extend Siri.

IntentReveal

Summary

  • Uses LLMs to deobfuscate and annotate Apple's private frameworks (SiriKit, Intents, Speech) extracted from iOS firmware, producing clean header files and documentation.
  • Core value: lowers the barrier for reverse‑engineering Siri internals, enabling developers to understand undocumented APIs without manual effort.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Security researchers, iOS developers, reverse engineers
Core Feature Upload an iOS .ipsw or framework bundle; the service runs LLM‑guided deobfuscation (e.g., using CodeLlama) and outputs annotated Swift/Obj‑C headers
Tech Stack Python backend, FastAPI, HuggingFace Transformers (LLM), Capstone for disassembly, Docker
Difficulty High
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • HN commenter danjc said: "Curious if anyone has experimented with LLM's RE'ing obfuscated code. I suspect they handle it just fine." This directly addresses that curiosity.
  • Could foster discussion on legal/ethical aspects of RE and provide a useful tool for learning.

SiriIntent Sandbox

Summary

  • Provides a cloud‑based, lightweight iOS sandbox (using QEMU‑based Corellium alternative) where users can send Siri intent requests and inspect responses, enabling experimentation without a jailbroken device.
  • Core value: lets developers test and debug Siri shortcuts and intents in an isolated environment, accelerating integration work.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience iOS app developers, Siri shortcut creators, enterprise mobility teams
Core Feature API endpoint that accepts a JSON intent payload, runs it in a sandboxed iOS runtime, returns structured logs and Siri response
Tech Stack Rust for sandbox orchestration, QEMU/KVM, SwiftLinux (or Darling) for iOS userland, gRPC API, React frontend
Difficulty High
Monetization Revenue-ready: Usage‑based pricing $0.01 per intent execution

Notes

  • HN commenter NeumannGod said: "Open challenge to anyone to use this framework and reverse engineer the internal APIs iPhone uses to talk to Siri or shortcuts or app Intents." The sandbox gives a legal way to explore those APIs.
  • Potential for discussion: could lead to new open‑source Siri‑compatible services and highlight gaps in Apple’s offerings.

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