I'm pretty sure that only media content is stored unencrypted, the text database should be encrypted.
this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2024
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The SQLite database is encrypted, though there was a period of time where it wasn't I think which may persist if your DB is older, but the key is stored right next to it on the filesystem. Signal desktop doesn't use your keyring or any of the other available methods to unlock it's database which is why you don't have to enter anything when starting the application, and why you can move it between machines by simply copying the .config/Signal
dir. So while they are "encrypted", it's effectively clear text if you have access to the directory the database is stored in.