Encode files base64

Type the key and press Enter. This is how you can use the base64 to encode and decode a string or a file from the command line. The results can be either printed on the standard output or save in a file. However, remember that encoding is not similar to encryption, and one can easily reveal the encoded data, so it is not recommended to use encoding for the transmission of sensitive data. Karim Buzdar holds a degree in telecommunication engineering and holds several sysadmin certifications.

As an IT engineer and technical author, he writes for various web sites. He blogs at LinuxWays. Encoding is the process used to convert data in a format required for effective transmission or storage. In contrast, decoding is opposite to the encoding method which converts the encoded data back to its original format.

Base64 encoding is mostly required to avoid the transmission problems that occur when binary data is transmitted to text-based systems which cannot handle the binary data properly.

One being is ensuring data integrity when transferring data over the network, while another is storing Secrets in Kubernetes. After reading this tutorial you will understand how to easily encode files or strings, and then decode them back. If you are running popular linux distributions, such as Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, or Red Hat, the base64 command-line tool is typically pre-installed. You should not have to perform any additional steps.

Encoding files is not encryption and should never be used to secure sensitive data on disk. Rather it is a useful way of transferring or storing large data in the form of a string. While it may obfuscate that actual data from should surfers, anyone who has access to base64 encoded data can easily decode it.

To base64 encode string you can pipe an echo command into the base64 command-line tool. To ensure no extra, hidden characters are added use the -n flag. We can do that in Sublime Text with the help of a plugin. Now we can see that the command is reaching out to emp[. While this is a very simplistic use case it is a great example of what kind of counter intelligence can be obtained with 5 mins of extra work.

Blocking the FQDN we extracted can not only increase infrastructure safety but also reduce the alerts that your IT or security team will need to address and save you time for other tasks in the future. So if this is so easy to decode then why use it to obfuscate malicious code? Great question! The answer is because Base64 is not only OS agnostic but, as it turns out, very robust and relatively easy to over engineer. Sooner or later you will run into something that fails to decode:.

In Python, a simple way to create a base64 string with custom key is to use the translation module:. Using the above table you can see that when the script is translating strings:. Now apply that logic to the string we are encoding with the script:. Obviously this process is very different in PowerShell but still achievable:.

Encoding, encrypting, and obfuscating are becoming more and more commonplace in our age of technology. Knowing the basics is key to understanding not just how to identify threat actors and malicious files but also how to keep our end user data safe as well. It is not only important to understand how to read and reverse these strings but also to have security software on our network that can provide the visibility we need to see these bits of code so that we can attempt to identify new threats.

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