To open and read a MikroTik .backup file reliably and safely, restore it to a RouterOS instance (preferably a VM matching the original RouterOS version), then export a human-readable .rsc. Avoid third-party parsers for complete fidelity, and handle backups as sensitive data.
The honest answer: . The .backup file is not designed for human readability. It is designed for restoration onto a RouterOS device. open mikrotik backup file
The open-source community has successfully reverse-engineered the v6 format. The most prominent tool is MikrotikBackupTool (often found on GitHub). To open and read a MikroTik