Types for objc_retain_xN / objc_release_xN in the libobjc type library should include their custom calling conventions

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#8,032 opened on Mar 23, 2026 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Assessment

Difficulty: 3/5
Estimated time: 1-2 days
Newbie friendliness: 50/100

Issue type: Bug
Clarity: Clearly specified
Activity status: Stale
Tech stack: objective-c
Domain: reverse-engineering

Research direction

Start at bv.import_library_object and locate the libobjc type-library definitions for _objc_retain_xN and _objc_release_xN, then review the shared cache and Mach-O view workarounds described in the issue. Done means both views can import these symbols with the id signature and matching apple-arm64-objc-fast-arc-N calling convention without manual fixups.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

Component: Type Libraries Language: Objective-C

Version and Platform (required):

Binary Ninja Version: 5.3.9301-dev Ultimate, 855e811
OS: macos
OS Version: 26.3.1
CPU Architecture: arm64

Bug Description:

>>> bv.import_library_object('_objc_release_x20')
<type: immutable:FunctionTypeClass 'void()'>
>>> bv.import_library_object('_objc_release_x20').calling_convention

Expected Behavior:
These functions should:

Have the correct signature: id _objc_release_x20(id).
Specify the custom calling convention (apple-arm64-objc-fast-arc-20) to make explicit that the argument is not passed via x0.

Additional Information:
Both the shared cache and Mach-O views have to work around this at present by recognizing imports of these functions and manually fixing up the signature and calling convention.

Dominant language: C++
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Forks: 298
Avg merge: 5d 5h
Merged PRs (30d): 19

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