the “magic bytes” are the first few bytes of a file that can tell you what format the file is.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_file_signatures
Mikrotik Backup file magic bytes
File type | Magic bytes |
RC4 Encrypted | EFA89172 |
AES Encrypted | EFA89173 |
Not Encrypted | 88ACA1B1 |
Using the above list, we can view a Mikrotik .backup file in a hex editor like GHex or dump it with xxd.