MINI HOW-TO: Installing MobSF on macOS Big Sur for mobile app and API penetration testing

Install Xcode, Homebrew, and Mobile Security Framework (MobSF) as usual following my other article:

Update for macOS Big Sur:

When installing MobSF on the new macOS Big Sur, you will run into an error message that MobSF only supports Python 3.7/3.8. However, Big Sur ships with Python 3.9.

alissaknight@ALISSAs-iPro Mobile-Security-Framework-MobSF % ./setup.sh

[ERROR] MobSF dependencies require Python 3.7/3.8. You have Python version 3.9.0 or python3 points to Python 3.9.0.

There were no help articles for installing MobSF on macOS Big Sur providing a resolution to this issue. Here is the work-around:

Step 1: Install Python 3.8

# brew install [email protected]

Step 2: Unlink Python 3.9

$ brew unlink [email protected]

Step 3: Link Python 3.8

$ brew link [email protected]

Next, run setup.sh as usual for MobSF and it should run as expected in the MobSF directory:

$ ./run.sh


alissaknight@ALISSAs-iPro Mobile-Security-Framework-MobSF % ./run.sh

[2020-12-24 14:24:53 -0800] [2495] [INFO] Starting gunicorn 20.0.4

[2020-12-24 14:24:53 -0800] [2495] [INFO] Listening at: https://0.0.0.0:8000 (2495)

[2020-12-24 14:24:53 -0800] [2495] [INFO] Using worker: threads

[2020-12-24 14:24:53 -0800] [2507] [INFO] Booting worker with pid: 2507