Sandbox Lens

A native, read-only macOS app for comparing readable sandbox profiles with sourced, build-specific references.

Sandbox Lens inventories readable .sb files and compares their paths and SHA-256 hashes with a selected macOS reference. It separates exact matches, changed files, expected-but-missing files, and additional files so that ordinary OS-version drift is not presented as malware.

A macOS sandbox profile is a Scheme-like text policy that can restrict which files, services, processes, and network operations a sandboxed process may use. Sandbox Lens reads the policy as evidence; it does not load or enforce it. The app is intended for Mac owners who need a clear first explanation as well as developers, reverse engineers, incident responders, and macOS researchers who need the underlying paths and hashes.

The bundled catalog currently contains 22 build-specific snapshots and 5,342 profile records, spanning macOS 10.9.5 through macOS 27.0. Coverage is intentionally described as incomplete: Apple does not publish a version-indexed archive of every raw profile, and public snapshots are sparse after Catalina. See RESEARCH.md for provenance, known gaps, and the evidence model.

• One-click scan of the two standard macOS profile locations.
• Folder scan for a copied or exported .sb collection.
• Exact path and SHA-256 comparison against a selected build.
• Plain-language verdicts with separate Match, Different, Missing, and Additional groups.
• Search across filename, path, and status.
• Narrow static summaries for defaults, broad file/network/process rules, imports, and no-sandbox markers.
• Source URL, source revision, build, channel, confidence, and hash details for each reference.
• Entirely local, read-only operation: no upload, execution, compilation, quarantine, deletion, or permission changes.

1. Open Sandbox Lens.
2. Leave the automatically selected baseline in place when it exactly matches your macOS product version and build.
3. Click Scan This Mac.
4. Read the overview before opening individual findings.
5. Treat a non-match as a review item, not a verdict. Confirm the exact OS build and seek independent evidence before drawing a security conclusion.

For exported profiles, click Scan Copied Folder and choose the folder that directly contains the copied .sb files. Do not choose /, /System, or another broad system directory.

Exact-build overview	Profile evidence

Baseline library	Interpretation guide

Requirements:

• macOS 13 Ventura or later.
• Apple Silicon or Intel Mac.

Download the universal ZIP and SHA256SUMS.txt from the latest release, then verify it in Terminal from the download folder:

shasum -a 256 -c SHA256SUMS.txt

Unzip the archive and move Sandbox Lens.app to Applications if desired.

The initial community build is ad-hoc signed with Hardened Runtime enabled. It is not signed with an Apple Developer ID and not notarized because no distribution signing identity is available for this release. Gatekeeper may therefore require Control-clicking the app, choosing Open, and confirming once. Do not disable Gatekeeper globally. See Signing and distribution for exact verification commands and limitations.

An exact match is a byte-identity result. The other categories require interpretation. If the baseline product version and build do not exactly match the Mac, choose the result closest to version drift, not compromise.

Sandbox Lens reads UTF-8 .sb files up to 16 MiB. It recursively enumerates the selected directory without following directory symlinks. Standard scans check:

• /usr/share/sandbox
• /System/Library/Sandbox/Profiles

The analyzer intentionally recognizes only a small set of textual patterns. It is not an SBPL compiler, parser, runtime tracer, malware detector, or semantic-equivalence engine. Imports, parameters, variables, regular expressions, operation variants, and OS-specific compiler behavior can change effective policy meaning.

• Scans stay on the Mac.
• The app does not require a network connection.
• Profile contents are not included in the bundled catalog; only derived metadata, hashes, provenance, and narrow summaries are shipped.
• The scanner never runs sandbox-exec, loads a policy, elevates privileges, bypasses protections, or modifies a scanned file.
• Permission failures are reported explicitly. They are not silently treated as missing files.

Requirements: Xcode or a Swift 6 toolchain on macOS 13 or later.

git clone https://github.com/hideouts-io/Sandbox-Lens.git
cd Sandbox-Lens
swift test
./script/build_and_run.sh

Useful development modes:

./script/build_and_run.sh --verify
./script/build_and_run.sh --debug
./script/build_and_run.sh --logs

The script stages dist/Sandbox Lens.app, signs it ad hoc with Hardened Runtime, verifies the bundle, and opens the real app. To create and validate a universal release archive:

./scripts/package_release.sh

That command cleans the package, runs the Swift and Python checks, builds arm64 and x86_64 slices, stages and verifies the app, creates a ZIP, extracts it again, and verifies the extracted copy. See Technical design and Testing.

Raw Apple profile text is intentionally ignored by Git and excluded from the app bundle. The app ships derived records. To reproduce the local research corpus:

./scripts/acquire_public_baselines.sh "$PWD/ResearchCorpus/raw"
./scripts/capture_local_baseline.sh "$PWD/ResearchCorpus/raw"
./scripts/build_baseline_manifest.py \
  --raw-root "$PWD/ResearchCorpus/raw" \
  --output "$PWD/Sources/SandboxLens/Resources/Baselines.json"

Every accepted snapshot requires provenance.json with a release, build, source URL, exact source revision, confidence, and notes. Independently review new sources before treating them as trusted references.

Assets/                       App icon source and packaged icon
Config/                       Shared version and bundle metadata
ResearchCorpus/               Corpus notes; raw profile text is ignored
Sources/SandboxLens/          Native SwiftUI app and bundled manifest
Tests/                        Swift and Python behavior tests
docs/                         Screenshots and technical documentation
script/build_and_run.sh       Development build, staging, and launch
scripts/                      Baseline, integrity, staging, and release tools

• Public baseline coverage is incomplete and uneven across macOS releases.
• The initial release is not Developer ID signed or notarized.
• Some protected locations may be unreadable under the current user account; the scan reports these failures.
• Static files cannot establish runtime policy use, network traffic, persistence, attribution, or compromise.
• A nearby OS build is context, not an authoritative baseline for another build.

The app says the folder cannot be completely enumerated. Choose the folder that directly contains the copied .sb files. For installed Apple profiles, use Scan This Mac rather than selecting a broad system directory.

The sidebars are empty after a scan. Select All profiles, Different, Missing, or Additional in the left sidebar. Empty finding categories are expected when every file matches.

There is no exact baseline for this Mac. Do not treat the nearest version as authoritative. You can still inventory profiles, but results remain version context until an exact product-version and build reference is available.

macOS blocks the downloaded app. Verify the checksum, then use the one-time Control-click Open flow described above. The initial build is not notarized; do not disable Gatekeeper globally.

Read CONTRIBUTING.md before proposing code or a baseline. Reports that add a baseline must include reproducible provenance and must not redistribute material without permission. Please use the private process in SECURITY.md for vulnerabilities rather than opening a public issue.

Sandbox Lens is available under the MIT License.

Historical reference material is attributed in RESEARCH.md, including the knightsc/sandbox_profiles and corecryptics/MacOSReports projects. Their inclusion as research sources does not imply endorsement of Sandbox Lens.

Another hideouts.io project: iOS Developer Toolkit.