carrier-explode

A web explorer for iOS carrier and country bundles, the baseband config that ships with them, and Pixel carrier settings: carrierexplode.com.

What's in it

• Every carrier and country bundle, from two sources merged into one timeline:
  • iOS images, extracted daily by the extractor. They cover all ~225 countries and ~690 carriers.
  • Apple's OTA asset server, which adds newer builds, history, Watch bundles and carriers not in any image.
• Decoded plists, .der.pri/.der.gri baseband overrides, PRLs, signed profiles, certificates, CgBI logos and more. Each field is explained where it's understood, marked by confidence.
• Diffs between any two bundles or versions, and a per-version Changes tab.
• "What does everyone else put here?": right-click any setting to see its value across every bundle.
• The modem packages of every iOS build, one per modem family (Qualcomm, Intel, Apple C1) with the iPhones each serves: carrier policies, band combos, power tables, and what each bundle overrides.
• Cell broadcast IDs by country, MCC/MNC lookup, and a page for each iOS release.
• Pixel CarrierSettings for every device of every build, with its own Settings, APNs, Files and Changes.

Layout

A pnpm workspace. Packages are TypeScript consumed as source, with no build step; scripts/check-deps.ts enforces the dependency rules.

• apps/site: the SvelteKit Worker. src/lib/server/ is the only code that touches R2 or Apple; the Worker only reads R2.
• apps/extractor: the ingest Worker, its Workflows and its container image.
• packages/decode-ios, packages/decode-android: the decoders. Findings about each format live next to the code that reads it.
• packages/schema: the platform-neutral model, concepts, mappers, timelines and index builder.
• packages/storage, packages/firmware, packages/http, packages/binary: the R2 layout, firmware readers (remote zip, OTA payload, ext4/EROFS, AEA, LZFSE), fetch, and byte helpers.
• packages/tsconfig: the strict compiler settings everything extends.
• tools/: standalone research tools for firmware formats, each with its own README (see tools/README.md).

Ingest

The extractor Worker (apps/extractor) fetches, decodes and indexes everything on Cloudflare Containers; see apps/extractor/README.md.

Development

pnpm install
pnpm test          # every package and app; CORPUS=<dir> adds the corpus tests, see packages/decode-ios/test/README.md
pnpm check         # tsc / svelte-check everywhere, then the dependency rules
pnpm build         # the site and the extractor's container bundle
pnpm dev           # the site, against local R2 (fill it with the extractor's seed script)

Every push to main deploys.

Prior art

• dwilliamsuk/ios-carrier-bundles: the IPSW extraction steps.
• mast3rz3ro/imobilecfbm, mrlnc/ipcc-downloader, samsam123.name.my/ipcc: downloaders over the same manifest.
• The Apple Wiki: Carrier Bundle.
• JohnBel/EfsTools and fenrir-naru/mbn_utils for Qualcomm EFS and NV names; 3GPP TS 23.041 and 3GPP2 C.S0016 for the spec-defined formats.