1. Read raw (encrypted) bytes from the file 2. If an XOR key exists, decrypt each byte by XORing it with the corresponding key byte 3. Key bytes are used cyclically (if data is longer than key) 4. Convert decrypted bytes back to the desired data type decode example: ||data| |-----------------------------|-------------| |encoded data: |01111000| |XOR Key: |10101010| |decoded data: |11010010|
decode example: