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For example, Portable Executable has several, including the famous “MZ” at the beginning, as well as the “PE\0\0” at the start of the PE header. The Rar file format has the “Rar!” header at the beginning, and several others have similar “magic values” in the file.
What purpose do such magic values serve?
Because users change the file extension, or other programs steal the file extension, it allows the application to cancel processing of a file in an unknown format instead of trying its best and then failing anyway.