Extend section in Mach-O file - shared-libraries

Question

I am trying to extract libraries from the Dyld_shared_cache, and need to fix in external references.
For example, the pointers in the __DATA.__objc_selrefs section usually point to data outside the mach-o file, to fix that I would have to copy the corresponding c-string from the dyld and append it to the __TEXT.__objc_methname section.
Though from my understanding of the Mach-O file format, this extension of the __TEXT.__objc_methname would shift all the sections after it and would force me to fix all the offsets and pointers that reference them. Is there a way to add data to a section without breaking a lot of things?
Thanks!

Answer 1

Thanks to #Kamil.S for the idea about adding a new load command and section.
One way to achieve adding more data to a section is to create a duplicate segment and section and insert it before the __LINKEDIT segment.
Slide the __LINKEDIT segment so we have space to add the new section.
define the slide amount, this must be page-aligned, so I choose 0x4000.
add the slide amount to the relevant load commands, this includes but is not limited to:
__LINKEDIT segment (duh)
dyld_info_command
symtab_command
dysymtab_command
linkedit_data_commands
physically move the __LINKEDIT in the file.
duplicate the section and change the following1
size, should be the length of your new data.
addr, should be in the free space.
offset, should be in the free space.
duplicate the segment and change the following1
fileoff, should be the start of the free space.
vmaddr, should be the start of the free space.
filesize, anything as long as it is bigger than your data.
vmsize, must be identical to filesize.
nsects, change to reflect how many sections your adding.
cmdsize, change to reflect the size of the segment command and its section commands.
insert the duplicated segment and sections before the __LINKEDIT segment
update the mach_header
ncmds
sizeofcmds
physically write the extra data in the file.
you can optionally change the segname and sectname fields, though it isn't necessary. thanks Kamil.S!

Answer 2

UPDATE
After clarifing with OP that extension of __TEXT.__objc_methname would happen during Mach-O post processing of an existing executable I had a fresh look on the problem.
Another take would be to create a new load command LC_SEGMENT_64 with a new __TEXT_EXEC.__objc_methname segment / section entry (normally __TEXT_EXEC is used for some kernel stuff but essentially it's the same thing as __TEXT). Here's a quick POC to ilustrate the concept:
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
int main(int argc, const char * argv[]) {
#autoreleasepool {
printf("%lx",[NSObject new]);
}
return 0;
}
Compile like this:
gcc main.m -c -o main.o
ld main.o -rename_section __TEXT __objc_methname __TEXT_EXEC __objc_methname -lobjc -lc
Interestingly only ld up to High Sierra 10.14.6 generates __TEXT.__objc_methname, no trace of it on Catalina, it's done differently.
UPDATE2.
Playing around with it, I noticed execution rights for __TEXT segment (and __TEXT_EXEC for that matter) are not required for __objc_methname to work.
Even better specific segment & section names are not required:
I could pull off:
__DATA.__objc_methname
__DATA_CONST.__objc_methname
__ARBITRARY.__arbitrary
or in my case last __DATA section
__DATA.__objc_classrefs where the original the data got concatenated by the selector name.
It's all fine as long as a proper null terminated C-string with the selector name is there. If I intentionally break the "new\0" in hex editor or MachOView I'll get
"+[NSObject ne]: unrecognized selector sent to instance ..."
upon launching my POC executable so the value is used for sure.
So to sum __TEXT.__objc_methname section itself is likely some debugger hint made by the linker. The app runtime seems to only need selector names as char* anywhere in memory.