Since Signal Desktop 7.17, the cipher key used to read the database is encrypted. This program attempts to decrypt the key. For this it tries to read a password from the your keychain.
Note this program is macOS only. For Windows, decrypting the keys is already part of signalbackup-tools.
This program depends on
- A c++ compiler, supporting c++17
- cmake (
brew install cmake) - openssl (
brew install openssl)
Simple download & compile:
$ git clone https://github.com/bepaald/get_signal_desktop_key_mac
$ cd get_signal_desktop_key_mac
$ cmake -B build
$ cmake --build build
Change/add any options if you know better.
Simply run the binary from the command line. Assuming it is located in the build directory passed to the cmake commands listed above:
$ ./build/get_signal_desktop_key_mac
The program expects to find the Signal Desktop config file in ~/Library/Application Support/Signal/config.json. If your config file is at a different location (or you're on the Beta), you can supply it as an argument to the program. For example:
$ ./build/get_signal_desktop_key ~/Library/Application Support/Signal Beta/json.config
If the program works, I would love to hear about it. Let me know what macOS version you are using, and any warnings, errors, or any unexpected output you encounter while compiling or running this program by adding a message to the first issue here. Thanks!
If the program consistently fails, try adding -v to the command line for more verbose output and opening an issue.
It is planned to incorparate this functionality into signalbackup-tools in the future. However, for now
- I am very short on time
- I am very unsure currently if it works at all for most people.