Apple Bill of Materials (BOM)
| Format | Apple Bill of Materials (BOM) |
|---|---|
| Short name | BOM |
| Category | archive |
| Platforms | macOS, iOS |
| Crush support | Not yet supported |
| Status | Reviewed |
| Last reviewed | 2026-10-05 |
Forensic relevance
Apple's BOMStore container format used for installer Bill of Materials files and also as the underlying container for compiled asset catalogs such as Assets.car. macOS installer receipts in /var/db/receipts/*.bom contain file records with metadata such as path, mode, owner, group, size and checksum, making them useful for establishing which files a package installed and for comparing an installed file set with the expected package contents. Installer packages (.pkg, xar) also contain an internal 'Bom' file. Assets.car files use the BOMStore container together with CoreUI-specific structures for compiled asset catalogs; they should therefore be treated as a distinct higher-level format rather than as ordinary BOM receipt files. BOMStore data consists of named blocks, variables and B-tree structures.
Signatures
| Offset | Hex | ASCII (non-printable as .) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| offset 0 (0x0) | 42 4F 4D 53 74 6F 72 65 | BOMStore | BOMStore signature 'BOMStore' |
Known extensions
.bom, .car
References
- bomutils — BOM file reader/writer (source with format structures) https://github.com/hogliux/bomutils
Cite this entry
Crush Format Reference, “Apple Bill of Materials (BOM)”. https://kalink0.github.io/crush-forensics/formats/bom/ — source: crush/data/build_formats_db.py at commit 640a2a9928f4e36a976b89901512a8dce824d093, built 2026-10-21 06:46:19 UTC.
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