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</details>
## Basic Information
**Grand Central Dispatch (GCD),** also known as **libdispatch**, is available in both macOS and iOS. It's a technology developed by Apple to optimize application support for concurrent (multithreaded) execution on multicore hardware.
**GCD** provides and manages **FIFO queues** to which your application can **submit tasks** in the form of **block objects**. Blocks submitted to dispatch queues are **executed on a pool of threads** fully managed by the system. GCD automatically creates threads for executing the tasks in the dispatch queues and schedules those tasks to run on the available cores.
{% hint style="success" %}
In summary, to execute code in **parallel**, processes can send **blocks of code to GCD**, which will take care of their execution. Therefore, processes don't create new threads; **GCD executes the given code with its own pool of threads**.
{% endhint %}
This is very helpful to manage parallel execution successfully, greatly reducing the number of threads processes create and optimising the parallel execution. This is idea for tasks that require **great parallelism** (brute-forcing?) or for tasks that shouldn't block the main thread: For example, the main thread on iOS handles UI interactions, so any other functionality that could make the app hang (searching, accessing a web, reading a file...) is managed this way.
## Objective-C
In Objetive-C there are different functions to send a block to be executed in parallel:
* [**dispatch\_async**](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/dispatch/1453057-dispatch\_async): Submits a block for asynchronous execution on a dispatch queue and returns immediately.
* [**dispatch\_sync**](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/dispatch/1452870-dispatch\_sync): Submits a block object for execution and returns after that block finishes executing.
* [**dispatch\_once**](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/dispatch/1447169-dispatch\_once): Executes a block object only once for the lifetime of an application.
* [**dispatch\_async\_and\_wait**](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/dispatch/3191901-dispatch\_async\_and\_wait): Submits a work item for execution and returns only after it finishes executing. Unlike [**`dispatch_sync`**](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/dispatch/1452870-dispatch\_sync), this function respects all attributes of the queue when it executes the block.
These functions expect these parameters: [**`dispatch_queue_t`**](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/dispatch/dispatch\_queue\_t) **`queue,`** [**`dispatch_block_t`**](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/dispatch/dispatch\_block\_t) **`block`**
This is the **struct of a Block**:
```c
struct Block {
void *isa; // NSConcreteStackBlock,...
int flags;
int reserved;
void *invoke;
struct BlockDescriptor *descriptor;
// captured variables go here
};
```
And this is an example to use **parallelism** with **`dispatch_async`**:
// Submit the block to the queue for asynchronous execution
dispatch_async(backgroundQueue, backgroundTask);
// Continue with other work on the main queue or thread
for (int i = 0; i <10;i++){
NSLog(@"Main task %d", i);
sleep(1); // Simulate a long-running task
}
}
return 0;
}
```
## Swift
**`libswiftDispatch`** is a library that provides **Swift bindings** to the Grand Central Dispatch (GCD) framework which is originally written in C.\
The **`libswiftDispatch`** library wraps the C GCD APIs in a more Swift-friendly interface, making it easier and more intuitive for Swift developers to work with GCD.
// Define a closure (the Swift equivalent of a block)
let backgroundTask: () -> Void = {
for i in 0..<10{
print("Background task \(i)")
sleep(1) // Simulate a long-running task
}
}
// Entry point
autoreleasepool {
// Create a dispatch queue
let backgroundQueue = DispatchQueue(label: "com.example.backgroundQueue")
// Submit the closure to the queue for asynchronous execution
backgroundQueue.async(execute: backgroundTask)
// Continue with other work on the main queue
for i in 0..<10{
print("Main task \(i)")
sleep(1) // Simulate a long-running task
}
}
```
## Frida
The following Frida script can be used to **hook into several `dispatch`** functions and extract the queue name, the backtrace and the block: [**https://github.com/seemoo-lab/frida-scripts/blob/main/scripts/libdispatch.js**](https://github.com/seemoo-lab/frida-scripts/blob/main/scripts/libdispatch.js)
* Do you work in a **cybersecurity company**? Do you want to see your **company advertised in HackTricks**? or do you want to have access to the **latest version of the PEASS or download HackTricks in PDF**? Check the [**SUBSCRIPTION PLANS**](https://github.com/sponsors/carlospolop)!
* Discover [**The PEASS Family**](https://opensea.io/collection/the-peass-family), our collection of exclusive [**NFTs**](https://opensea.io/collection/the-peass-family)
* Get the [**official PEASS & HackTricks swag**](https://peass.creator-spring.com)
* **Join the** [**💬**](https://emojipedia.org/speech-balloon/) [**Discord group**](https://discord.gg/hRep4RUj7f) or the [**telegram group**](https://t.me/peass) or **follow** me on **Twitter** [**🐦**](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks/tree/7af18b62b3bdc423e11444677a6a73d4043511e9/\[https:/emojipedia.org/bird/README.md)[**@carlospolopm**](https://twitter.com/hacktricks\_live)**.**
* **Share your hacking tricks by submitting PRs to the** [**hacktricks repo**](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks) **and** [**hacktricks-cloud repo**](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks-cloud).
