mcrypt_generic

Description

string mcrypt_generic ( resource td, string data )

This function encrypts data. The data is padded with "\0" to make sure the length of the data is n * blocksize. This function returns the encrypted data. Note that the length of the returned string can in fact be longer then the input, due to the padding of the data.

If you want to store the encrypted data in a database make sure to store the entire string as returned by mcrypt_generic, or the string will not entirely decrypt properly. If your original string is 10 characters long and the block size is 8 (use mcrypt_enc_get_block_size() to determine the blocksize), you would need at least 16 characters in your database field. Note the string returned by mdecrypt_generic() will be 16 characters as well...use rtrim()($str, "\0") to remove the padding.

If you are for example storing the data in a MySQL database remember that varchar fields automatically have trailing spaces removed during insertion. As encrypted data can end in a space (ASCII 32), the data will be damaged by this removal. Store data in a tinyblob/tinytext (or larger) field instead.

The encryption handle should always be initialized with mcrypt_generic_init() with a key and an IV before calling this function. Where the encryption is done, you should free the encryption buffers by calling mcrypt_generic_deinit(). See mcrypt_module_open() for an example.

add a note User Contributed Notes

eric at ez-llc dot com
12-Mar-2006 04:55


I was able get php and perl to play together with blowfish using cipher block chaining.  The blowfish key needs to be atleast 8 chars (even though blowfish min is 8 bits, perl didn't like keys smaller than 8 chars) and max 56.  The iv must be exactly 8 chars and padding needs to be null because php pads with nulls.  Also, php needs libmcrypt >= 2.4.9 to be compatible with perl.



PERL

----



use Crypt::CBC;

$cipher = Crypt::CBC->new( {'key' => 'my secret key',

                                    'cipher'=> 'Blowfish',

                                    'iv' => '12345678',

                                    'regenerate_key' => 0,

                                    'padding' => 'null',

                                    'prepend_iv' => 0

                                    });

$cc = 'my secret text';

$encrypted = $cipher->encrypt($cc);

$decrypted = $cipher->decrypt($encrypted);



print "encrypted : ".$encrypted;

print "<br>";

print "decrypted : ".$decrypted;



PHP

---



$cc = 'my secret text';

$key = 'my secret key';

$iv = '12345678';



$cipher = mcrypt_module_open(MCRYPT_BLOWFISH,'','cbc','');



mcrypt_generic_init($cipher, $key, $iv);

$encrypted = mcrypt_generic($cipher,$cc);

mcrypt_generic_deinit($cipher);



mcrypt_generic_init($cipher, $key, $iv);

$decrypted = mdecrypt_generic($cipher,$encrypted);

mcrypt_generic_deinit($cipher);



echo "encrypted : ".$encrypted;

echo "<br>";

echo "decrypted : ".$decrypted;

Ryan Thomas, ryanrst at gmail dot com
05-Jan-2006 06:15


If you wish to store encrypted data in a cookie variable on the browser you will encounter problems when decrypting the data. This is because cookies will only store US-ASCII characters and your encrypted data may contain non-US-ASCII characters.



The solution: 



base64_encode your encrypted string before you store it in the cookie and base64_decode the string stored in the cookie becore decrypting.



Example:



function setEncryptedCookie($cookieName, $data)

{

  setcookie($cookieName, base64_encode($this->encrypt($data)), time()+$this->expire);  

}



function getEncryptedCookie($cookieName)

{

  return $this->decrypt(base64_decode($_COOKIE[$cookieName]));

}

pauls at sellingsource dot com
16-May-2003 02:02


If you are encrypting binary and there is a null terminator partway through your encryption, you will loose the rest of the string.  A workaround is to base64_encode your binary string first.



We found this problem while trying to encrypt CC information.  Some CC values would not decrypt after we converted them to a binary string.



We were using the MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_256 module to encrypt with.



Hope this helps someone.

add a note