An encrypted backup file produced by the WhatsApp Messenger app for Android is called a CRYPT14 file. It includes a 256-bit AES encrypted record of all the messages a user has sent and received over WhatsApp.
To decode a CRYPT14 database and read the message history it contains, you must first locate your WhatsApp key file. The file containing your key is kept at /data/data/com.whatsapp/files/key.
Next, you need to find the file called CRYPT14. CRYPT14 files are kept by WhatsApp in the /sdcard/WhatsApp/Databases directory.
WhatsApp Viewer (Windows), a free WhatsApp database decryption tool, allows you to decode, read, and save your WhatsApp chat history when you’ve recovered both your encryption key and your CRYPT14 file.
On an Android device, you can also utilize a CRYPT14 file to transfer or recover your WhatsApp message history. You can manually recover your message history by renaming your most recent CRYPT14 file to msgstore.db.crypt14, deleting and reinstalling WhatsApp, and then following the instructions in the app.
With the release of version 2.21.8.17 in May 2021, WhatsApp started storing backups of its message history as CRYPT14 files. WhatsApp’s security is one of the main factors contributing to its success. Only because of its end-to-end encryptions can that be said.
Investigating Deciphering WhatsApp Conversations
For messages, WhatsApp offers end-to-end encryption. This implies that no one else can read the messages; only the sender and the recipient can. It turns out that there are a surprising number of techniques to read encrypted WhatsApp messages. Using a professional WhatsApp monitoring program is the best way to read encrypted text messages on an Android device.
For the purpose of remotely and covertly reading encrypted WhatsApp chats, we suggest KidsGuard as a monitoring program. Directly from your KidsGuard for WhatsApp Dashboard, you may view the target user’s encrypted WhatsApp communications. You can also view the target person’s WhatsApp status anonymously with the KidsGuard for WhatsApp app. You are able to view every status, including expired, deleted, and current.
Examining the CRYPT14 File Extension
The messaging program WhatsApp uses a specific sort of file called a CRYPT14 file to store encrypted message data on an Android smartphone. The database file is encrypted with a particular encryption algorithm, as indicated by the .crypt14 file suffix. WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption, which restricts message reading to the sender and recipient only, to safeguard the data in the crypt14 file.
The WhatsApp software creates a backup file containing your chat history, media files, and other data when you back up your messages on an Android smartphone. If the backup file was made with WhatsApp version 2.12.556 or later, it includes a .crypt14 file extension.
You may take the following actions to recover your WhatsApp messages from a .crypt14 backup file:
- It is important to keep in mind that backup files from earlier WhatsApp versions (below 2.12.556) might not work with the app’s more recent versions and might have a different file extension.