How to do Base64 encoding in node.js?

Question

Does node.js have built-in base64 encoding yet?

The reason why I ask this is that final() from crypto can only output hex, binary or ascii data. For example:

var cipher = crypto.createCipheriv('des-ede3-cbc', encryption_key, iv);
var ciph = cipher.update(plaintext, 'utf8', 'hex');
ciph += cipher.final('hex');

var decipher = crypto.createDecipheriv('des-ede3-cbc', encryption_key, iv);
var txt = decipher.update(ciph, 'hex', 'utf8');
txt += decipher.final('utf8');

According to the docs, update() can output base64-encoded data. However, final() doesn't support base64. I tried and it will break.

If I do this:

var ciph = cipher.update(plaintext, 'utf8', 'base64');
    ciph += cipher.final('hex');

Then what should I use for decryption? Hex or base64?

Therefore, I'm looking for a function to base64-encode my encrypted hex output.

Answer 1

Buffers can be used for taking a string or piece of data and doing base64 encoding of the result. For example:

> console.log(Buffer.from("Hello World").toString('base64'));
SGVsbG8gV29ybGQ=
> console.log(Buffer.from("SGVsbG8gV29ybGQ=", 'base64').toString('ascii'))
Hello World

Buffers are a global object, so no require is needed. Buffers created with strings can take an optional encoding parameter to specify what encoding the string is in. The available toString and Buffer constructor encodings are as follows:

'ascii' - for 7 bit ASCII data only. This encoding method is very fast, and will strip the high bit if set.

'utf8' - Multi byte encoded Unicode characters. Many web pages and other document formats use UTF-8.

'ucs2' - 2-bytes, little endian encoded Unicode characters. It can encode only BMP(Basic Multilingual Plane, U+0000 - U+FFFF).

'base64' - Base64 string encoding.

'binary' - A way of encoding raw binary data into strings by using only the first 8 bits of each character. This encoding method is deprecated and should be avoided in favor of Buffer objects where possible. This encoding will be removed in future versions of Node.

Answer 2

The accepted answer previously contained new Buffer(), which is considered a security issue in node versions greater than 6 (although it seems likely for this usecase that the input can always be coerced to a string).

The Buffer constructor is deprecated according to the documentation.

Here is an example of a vulnerability that can result from using it in the ws library.

The code snippets should read:

console.log(Buffer.from("Hello World").toString('base64'));
console.log(Buffer.from("SGVsbG8gV29ybGQ=", 'base64').toString('ascii'));

After this answer was written, it has been updated and now matches this.

Answer 3

crypto now supports base64 (reference):

cipher.final('base64') 

So you could simply do:

var cipher = crypto.createCipheriv('des-ede3-cbc', encryption_key, iv);
var ciph = cipher.update(plaintext, 'utf8', 'base64');
ciph += cipher.final('base64');

var decipher = crypto.createDecipheriv('des-ede3-cbc', encryption_key, iv);
var txt = decipher.update(ciph, 'base64', 'utf8');
txt += decipher.final('utf8');

Answer 4

Buffers can be used for taking a string or piece of data and doing base64 encoding of the result. For example:

You can install Buffer via npm like :- npm i buffer --save

you can use this in your js file like this :-

var buffer = require('buffer/').Buffer;

->> console.log(buffer.from("Hello Vishal Thakur").toString('base64'));
SGVsbG8gVmlzaGFsIFRoYWt1cg==  // Result

->> console.log(buffer.from("SGVsbG8gVmlzaGFsIFRoYWt1cg==", 'base64').toString('ascii'))
Hello Vishal Thakur   // Result

Answer 5

I am using following code to decode base64 string in node API nodejs version 10.7.0

let data = 'c3RhY2thYnVzZS5jb20=';  // Base64 string
let buff = new Buffer(data, 'base64');  //Buffer
let text = buff.toString('ascii');  //this is the data type that you want your Base64 data to convert to
console.log('"' + data + '" converted from Base64 to ASCII is "' + text + '"'); 

Please don't try to run above code in console of the browser, won't work. Put the code in server side files of nodejs. I am using above line code in API development.

Answer 6

I have created a ultimate small js npm library for the base64 encode/decode conversion in Node.js.

Installation

npm install nodejs-base64-converter --save

Usage

var nodeBase64 = require('nodejs-base64-converter');

console.log(nodeBase64.encode("test text")); //dGVzdCB0ZXh0
console.log(nodeBase64.decode("dGVzdCB0ZXh0")); //test text

Answer 7

You can do base64 encoding and decoding with simple javascript.

    $("input").keyup(function () {
     var value = $(this).val(),
         hash = Base64.encode(value);
     $(".test").html(hash);

     var decode = Base64.decode(hash);

     $(".decode").html(decode);
 });

var Base64={_keyStr:"ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/=",encode:function(e){var t="";var n,r,i,s,o,u,a;var f=0;e=Base64._utf8_encode(e);while(f<e.length){n=e.charCodeAt(f++);r=e.charCodeAt(f++);i=e.charCodeAt(f++);s=n>>2;o=(n&3)<<4|r>>4;u=(r&15)<<2|i>>6;a=i&63;if(isNaN(r)){u=a=64}else if(isNaN(i)){a=64}t=t+this._keyStr.charAt(s)+this._keyStr.charAt(o)+this._keyStr.charAt(u)+this._keyStr.charAt(a)}return t},decode:function(e){var t="";var n,r,i;var s,o,u,a;var f=0;e=e.replace(/[^A-Za-z0-9+/=]/g,"");while(f<e.length){s=this._keyStr.indexOf(e.charAt(f++));o=this._keyStr.indexOf(e.charAt(f++));u=this._keyStr.indexOf(e.charAt(f++));a=this._keyStr.indexOf(e.charAt(f++));n=s<<2|o>>4;r=(o&15)<<4|u>>2;i=(u&3)<<6|a;t=t+String.fromCharCode(n);if(u!=64){t=t+String.fromCharCode(r)}if(a!=64){t=t+String.fromCharCode(i)}}t=Base64._utf8_decode(t);return t},_utf8_encode:function(e){e=e.replace(/rn/g,"n");var t="";for(var n=0;n<e.length;n++){var r=e.charCodeAt(n);if(r<128){t+=String.fromCharCode(r)}else if(r>127&&r<2048){t+=String.fromCharCode(r>>6|192);t+=String.fromCharCode(r&63|128)}else{t+=String.fromCharCode(r>>12|224);t+=String.fromCharCode(r>>6&63|128);t+=String.fromCharCode(r&63|128)}}return t},_utf8_decode:function(e){var t="";var n=0;var r=c1=c2=0;while(n<e.length){r=e.charCodeAt(n);if(r<128){t+=String.fromCharCode(r);n++}else if(r>191&&r<224){c2=e.charCodeAt(n+1);t+=String.fromCharCode((r&31)<<6|c2&63);n+=2}else{c2=e.charCodeAt(n+1);c3=e.charCodeAt(n+2);t+=String.fromCharCode((r&15)<<12|(c2&63)<<6|c3&63);n+=3}}return t}}

// Define the string
var string = 'Hello World!';

// Encode the String
var encodedString = Base64.encode(string);
console.log(encodedString); // Outputs: "SGVsbG8gV29ybGQh"

// Decode the String
var decodedString = Base64.decode(encodedString);
console.log(decodedString); // Outputs: "Hello World!"</script></div>

This is implemented in this Base64 encoder decoder