Pre-2017 Skype chatsync
Before a change some time in or before 2017[2], the VoIP + chat program Skype stored its message history in several binary files collected under a directory names "chatsync". These are particularly useful, especially in comparison to the main Skype log/history database, because they purportedly contain messages that had been "deleted" by the client. Under the "chatsync" directory, the individual files, which have the extension .dat and a main name consisting of 8 bytes represented in hexadecimal (to make 16 ASCII characters), are placed into directories named after the first two characters (i.e. the first byte, as represented in hexadecimal) of their name.[3]
Identification
.dat files appear to have the magic number 73 43 64 72 07, as represented in hexadecimal.[4]
Links
- [1]: A Python tool (Pip package name skype-chatsync-reader) capable of reading the files (this does not seem to work with [3]; it is possible that the change was not even around 2017 but rather pre-2014)
- An attempt to document the structure of the .dat format
- Another program for reading .dat files
References
- ↑ Wikipedia:Skype
- ↑ Message at top of http://fouryears.eu/2015/01/22/skype-removed-messages/
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 A Skype database, last modified late 2014, associated with User:Effect2
- ↑ https://www.hackerfactor.com/blog/index.php?/archives/231-Skype-Logs.html#c1066
