In game development pak files are secured by some encryption and one of these are AES key. I want to know that for security purpose is the AES key is stored in the game files itself? I know that computer cannot store the AES key in his mind so it need some clues or files to extract these Ppak files, so where does these AES keys gets stored in a game file itself?
1 Answer
Yes, the encryption key must be somewhere, otherwise the game would be unable to open those archives. But unfortunately there are just too many ways one could store such a key. It could be somewhere in the executable files or in some other file which comes with the game. It might even be possible that the game connects to the Internet when it starts up and downloads the decryption key from the publisher's website. The developers might also try to obfuscate the key in various ways so you won't find it that easily.
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\$\begingroup\$ Thanks @Philipp... is there any possibility that the pak files are extracted in the storage other than pak file... while playing game? \$\endgroup\$ Commented Mar 12, 2019 at 10:39
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\$\begingroup\$ @RitickSaha Yes, everything is possible. There is no standard way to do anything in game development. Game programmers can get really creative when it comes to implementation details. \$\endgroup\$– PhilippCommented Mar 12, 2019 at 10:42
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\$\begingroup\$ @RitickSaha Making the encryption key easy to extract would defeat the purpose of using encryption to begin with. \$\endgroup\$– PikalekCommented Mar 12, 2019 at 14:55