install

Additional install commands

macOS

Homebrewverified · 100%

brew install libusbmuxd

provider-native install command

overview

Package summary

USB multiplexor library for iOS devices

Project links

Commands and aliases

inetcat
iproxy

history

Project history and usage

libusbmuxd is the libimobiledevice client library and tool set for talking to the usbmux protocol used to multiplex connections to services on iOS devices.

Project history

The library grew out of the libimobiledevice ecosystem, which provides open-source userspace tools for communicating with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices. Its README describes libusbmuxd as a client library that does not talk directly to a device; it connects to a socket exposed by a usbmuxd daemon, using Apple's daemon on macOS and Windows or the libimobiledevice usbmuxd daemon on Linux.

Adoption history

The package is widely carried because libimobiledevice-based tooling needs a portable way to reach device services over USB or network sync. The 1.0.9 release notes identify it as the first release after splitting usbmuxd and libusbmuxd, which made the daemon and client library easier for distributions to package separately.

How it is used

Most users encounter libusbmuxd through higher-level tools, but the package also ships iproxy for forwarding a local TCP port to a service on a connected iOS device and inetcat for exposing a raw connection.

Why package nerds care

It is one of the plumbing packages that makes non-Apple iOS workflows possible: device pairing, service access, backups, testing, and debugging stacks commonly depend on this small multiplexing layer.

Timeline

1.0.9: First release after the usbmuxd/libusbmuxd project split.
2.0.0: Added support for USB and network devices reported by usbmuxd and introduced new context-aware event subscription APIs.
2.0.2: Renamed the library/API-versioned files to libusbmuxd-2.0 and added man pages for iproxy and inetcat.
2.1.0: Moved socket code to libimobiledevice-glue and added libusbmuxd_version().

Related projects

libimobiledevice is the higher-level project that uses libusbmuxd for iOS service communication.
usbmuxd is the daemon side of the protocol.
libplist and libimobiledevice-glue are related libimobiledevice dependencies.

Sources

security posture

Risk level: green

library-like package without higher-risk signals.

Risk classifier

green risk · low confidence · appliance

Why

library-like package without higher-risk signals

Signals

metadata:library-like

Install behavior

No Homebrew bottle metadata was recorded.

Recommended review

Before unattended agent use, check whether the tool reads plaintext credentials, writes remote state, publishes artifacts, or shells out to plugins.

executables

Installed executables

Command	Kind	Exposure	Note
`inetcat`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`iproxy`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.

freshness

Version and freshness

These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.

page generated2026-08-03

manager version2.1.1

manager updated

local dataunknown

upstreamnot available

latest detectednot detected

okNo freshness warnings were generated.

install metadata

Package metadata

Package key	brew:libusbmuxd
Version	2.1.1
Package manager	Homebrew
Homepage	https://www.libimobiledevice.org/
Repository	https://github.com/libimobiledevice/libusbmuxd
Bottle	not recorded
Service	none declared

package graph

Links come from deterministic package relationships, av.db category and tag curation, ecosystem matches, and package hub membership.

source trail

Generated from repository data

This page is generated by av-web from the private package SQLite artifact built by scripts/generate-pkg-sqlite.py.

Combined YAML source

View the package source record on GitHub.

combined/libusbmuxd.yml

Used sources

Geiger risk classifier
Nucleus package database
curated package history
pkgdb category and tag curation

Install libusbmuxd with Homebrew