Monthly Archives: September 2015

Access iOS Simulator Logs directly

how-tos, , , , ,

Sometimes I need to get NSLogs from an app running in the iOS simulator, but said simulator wasn’t launched through Xcode.

There’s a method listed in this stackoverflow post that works for me with Xcode 6.

In the simulator itself, you go to Debug > Open System Log… and it should open Console.app and come right up. If it doesn’t, you might need to try it more than once like I had to.

Screenshot 2015-09-28 20.41.55

If you want to access the log files directly on disk, it’s a bit convoluted. Direct quote from the stackoverflow page (in case link rot sets in):

In case you need it, this log is kept in Library/Logs/CoreSimulator/[device name]/system.log. To get [device name], go to Xcode, Window -> Devices and find the device that you are currently simulating. Look for the Identifier. Compare that against the folder names in Library/Logs/CoreSimulator and you should find a match.

Anatomy of a phishing attack

misc, ,

I got a phishing email today that purported to be from a credit-card company. I had a funny feeling about it, and I’m ashamed to admit it almost fooled me until I took a closer look. Here’s what it looked like. Can you tell what’s wrong with it?

Screenshot 2015-09-25 11.36.24

On closer inspection, I found quite a few things wrong with it, even though it had an attention-grabbing subject line. Here’s the email again, with some spots highlighted in no particular order:

Screenshot 2015-09-25 11.39.10

  1. From email address isn’t from anything remotely resembling americanexpress.com. This can be easily spoofed, though, so not phishing emails will have this problem.
  2. To email address: not my real email address. It only arrived in my email inbox because I have a catch-all address set up on my domain.
  3. The link they’re trying to get you to click does NOT go to americanexpress.com, but to american-express-d3s1.com – a dead giveaway.
  4. No American Express logo or branding of any kind? Suspicious.
  5. What is this even supposed to be? “For your security” with a random number?? It doesn’t even make sense!

Just goes to show, if you’re suspicious of an email, it never hurts to take a closer look!