next step would of course be to make sure it's a valid .aes file by comparing the file format description from https://www.aescrypt.com/aes_file_format.html with the file loaded in a hex editor (like explained above, for instance this HxD for windows that seems to be a recommended hex editor for that operating system. I normally just use tools like xxd for linux, but any good editor that shows you the bytes of the file in hexadecimal will work)
I'm pretty sure that this is you (Rust64 on github) that is complaining that the aescrypt2hashcat.pl script throws too many error messages: https://github.com/hashcat/hashcat/issues/2483 . The timing and the exact same problem at the same time can't just be a coincidence. I would always prefer that users just mention and post a link to their github issue, otherwise this gets so confusing. How should we otherwise know that fatcat is the same as Rust64 ?
Anyway, I'm not convinced that the aescrypt2hashcat.pl tool is throwing too many error messages... It does check exactly what it needs to check i.e. if the metadata is valid according to the .aes file format specification from the official AES Crypt website (the link was already posted several times above).
If you are in doubt, just create a new .aes file and see if aescrypt2hashcat.pl works... if you are able to generate a new example with the AES Crypt software (even an older version of AES Crypt, but still with file format 2) that isn't accepted by aescrypt2hashcat.pl, you could easily share that test file here and we will see what could have gone wrong. Of course you shouldn't post your target file with sensitive info in it. Only new tests. I can't come up with any file that was created by AES Crypt software but doesn't work with aescrypt2hashcat.pl (and this is exactly how it should be, everything works correctly in my tests).
I'm pretty sure that this is you (Rust64 on github) that is complaining that the aescrypt2hashcat.pl script throws too many error messages: https://github.com/hashcat/hashcat/issues/2483 . The timing and the exact same problem at the same time can't just be a coincidence. I would always prefer that users just mention and post a link to their github issue, otherwise this gets so confusing. How should we otherwise know that fatcat is the same as Rust64 ?
Anyway, I'm not convinced that the aescrypt2hashcat.pl tool is throwing too many error messages... It does check exactly what it needs to check i.e. if the metadata is valid according to the .aes file format specification from the official AES Crypt website (the link was already posted several times above).
If you are in doubt, just create a new .aes file and see if aescrypt2hashcat.pl works... if you are able to generate a new example with the AES Crypt software (even an older version of AES Crypt, but still with file format 2) that isn't accepted by aescrypt2hashcat.pl, you could easily share that test file here and we will see what could have gone wrong. Of course you shouldn't post your target file with sensitive info in it. Only new tests. I can't come up with any file that was created by AES Crypt software but doesn't work with aescrypt2hashcat.pl (and this is exactly how it should be, everything works correctly in my tests).