Backing up Signal messages from IOS (using Frida)

This guide is inteded for the technically skilled. Jailbreak, MacOS, Homebrew required

Signal doesn't provide any backup mechanisms for iOS.

Getting the database key

1. Install Frida on Mac and your jailbroken iPhone
2. run ./getkey.py

Ouptut should look something like

$ ./getkey.py
Waiting for Signal to start...
Database file: /private/var/mobile/Containers/Shared/AppGroup/A26B1269-0C99-4465-A4D0-A39562DD8B9A/grdb/signal.sqlite
Database key: 4aed84f9e96323522***CENSORED***5111180bbd2fc53

Getting the database data (rsync)

1. Install openssh and rsync from Cydia on your phone.
2. rsync -av root:alpine@IP_OF_PHONE:/private/var/mobile/Containers/Shared/AppGroup/[UUID_FROM_GETKEY.PY] .

Decrypting the database

1. Install SQLCipher brew install sqlcipher
2. Put signal.sqlite in same folder as decrypt.sh and run decrypt.sh KEY_FROM_GETKEY.