wa-crypt-tools VS imessage_reader

> they'll be encrypted

Since some months (years?) ago, WhatsApp lets you set up your own encryption password for the DB backup. I set one up and used https://github.com/ElDavoo/wa-crypt-tools to get access to the decrypted SQLite and run some analytics over my messages :)

I searched a lot on this subreddit and found two github solutions: B16f00t/whapa: WhatsApp Parser Toolset v1.59 (github.com) and ElDavoo/wa-crypt-tools: Decrypts WhatsApp .crypt12, .crypt14 and .crypt15 files. (github.com)

Just found https://github.com/ElDavoo/wa-crypt-tools and since i have a new backup in a rooted phone i think i'm gonna tamper with the db to see what's inside.

BUT! Assuming nothing changed in the meantime there's a possible path to sanity now! You can enable end to end encrypted backups and use the hex key (NOT the password), write it down (screen shot it too maybe, although of course be careful where the screenshot ends up, I'm talking especially Google Photos and you care about the Whatsapp backups being encrypted against Google) and that's it, you have the key. You can then decrypt with https://github.com/ElDavoo/WhatsApp-Crypt14-Crypt15-Decrypter

Used again exactly yesterday, and turns out that the key padding changed, so I need to use this new decrypter: https://github.com/ElDavoo/WhatsApp-Crypt14-Crypt15-Decrypter

With either of the keys from above (if using the second option make sure you pick the key that looks as the screen shot from the link, a 64-digit key, not some password you set) you can use https://github.com/ElDavoo/WhatsApp-Crypt14-Crypt15-Decrypter to decrypt.

You can also use the msgstore.crypt14 or something file present in Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp/Databases using a Crypt14 decoder along with the key which is the same as the one from Step 1.

Or you can set your own password on Android, and therefore not require rooting. (WhatsApp gives you that option) I do that for my own backups. Download them via Google Drive [0] and then use this tool to decrypt them [1][2]

[0] https://github.com/YuriCosta/WhatsApp-GD-Extractor-Multithre...

[1] https://github.com/ElDavoo/WhatsApp-Crypt14-Crypt15-Decrypte...

[2] https://github.com/ElDavoo/WhatsApp-Crypt14-Crypt15-Decrypte...

the main tool i used for transferring the messages is https://github.com/residentsummer/watoi and also used https://github.com/ElDavoo/WhatsApp-Crypt14-Decrypter to decrypt the messages from the android phone . a full guide is here - https://github.com/needs-coffee/Whatsapp-android-to-ios-guide

I don't think this works with more recent iMessage features, it looks like it only queries the `text` column [0], but newer (i.e. post MacOS 13) require reading and parsing the attributed_body column [1].

[0]: https://github.com/niftycode/imessage_reader/blob/master/ime...

[1]: https://github.com/ReagentX/imessage-exporter/blob/2dc3d034b...