PHP AES encrypt / decrypt

Question

I found an example for en/decoding strings in PHP. At first it looks very good but it wont work :-(

Does anyone know what the problem is?

$Pass = "Passwort";
$Clear = "Klartext";

$crypted = fnEncrypt($Clear, $Pass);
echo "Encrypted: ".$crypted."</br>";

$newClear = fnDecrypt($crypted, $Pass);
echo "Decrypted: ".$newClear."</br>";

function fnEncrypt($sValue, $sSecretKey) {
    return trim(base64_encode(mcrypt_encrypt(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_256, $sSecretKey, $sDecrypted, MCRYPT_MODE_ECB, mcrypt_create_iv(mcrypt_get_iv_size(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_256, MCRYPT_MODE_ECB), MCRYPT_RAND))));
}

function fnDecrypt($sValue, $sSecretKey) {
    return trim(mcrypt_decrypt(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_256, $sSecretKey, base64_decode($sEncrypted), MCRYPT_MODE_ECB, mcrypt_create_iv(mcrypt_get_iv_size(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_256, MCRYPT_MODE_ECB), MCRYPT_RAND)));
}

The result is:

Encrypted: boKRNTYYNp7AiOvY1CidqsAn9wX4ufz/D9XrpjAOPk8=

Decrypted: —‚(ÑÁ ^ yË~F'¸®Ó–í œð2Á_B‰Â—

Answer 1

If you are using PHP >= 7.2 consider using inbuilt sodium core extension for encrption.

Find more information here - http://php.net/manual/en/intro.sodium.php.

Answer 2

Few important things to note with AES encryption:

1. Never use plain text as encryption key. Always hash the plain text key and then use for encryption.
2. Always use Random IV (initialization vector) for encryption and decryption. True randomization is important.
3. As mentioned above, don't use ecb mode, use CBC instead.

Answer 3

If you are using MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_128, try rtrim($output, "\0\3"). If the length of the string is less than 16, the decrypt function will return a string with length of 16 characters, adding 03 at the end.

You can easily check this, e.g. by trying:

$string = "TheString";
$decrypted_string = decrypt_function($stirng, $key);

echo bin2hex($decrypted_string)."=".bin2hex("TheString");

Answer 4

$sDecrypted and $sEncrypted were undefined in your code. See a solution that works (but is not secure!):

---

STOP!

This example is insecure! Do not use it!

---

$Pass = "Passwort";
$Clear = "Klartext";        

$crypted = fnEncrypt($Clear, $Pass);
echo "Encrypred: ".$crypted."</br>";

$newClear = fnDecrypt($crypted, $Pass);
echo "Decrypred: ".$newClear."</br>";        

function fnEncrypt($sValue, $sSecretKey)
{
    return rtrim(
        base64_encode(
            mcrypt_encrypt(
                MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_256,
                $sSecretKey, $sValue, 
                MCRYPT_MODE_ECB, 
                mcrypt_create_iv(
                    mcrypt_get_iv_size(
                        MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_256, 
                        MCRYPT_MODE_ECB
                    ), 
                    MCRYPT_RAND)
                )
            ), "\0"
        );
}

function fnDecrypt($sValue, $sSecretKey)
{
    return rtrim(
        mcrypt_decrypt(
            MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_256, 
            $sSecretKey, 
            base64_decode($sValue), 
            MCRYPT_MODE_ECB,
            mcrypt_create_iv(
                mcrypt_get_iv_size(
                    MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_256,
                    MCRYPT_MODE_ECB
                ), 
                MCRYPT_RAND
            )
        ), "\0"
    );
}

But there are other problems in this code which make it insecure, in particular the use of ECB (which is not an encryption mode, only a building block on top of which encryption modes can be defined). See Fab Sa's answer for a quick fix of the worst problems and Scott's answer for how to do this right.

Answer 5

For information MCRYPT_MODE_ECB doesn't use the IV (initialization vector). ECB mode divide your message into blocks and each block is encrypted separately. I really don't recommended it.

CBC mode use the IV to make each message unique. CBC is recommended and should be used instead of ECB.

Example :

<?php
$password = "myPassword_!";
$messageClear = "Secret message";

// 32 byte binary blob
$aes256Key = hash("SHA256", $password, true);

// for good entropy (for MCRYPT_RAND)
srand((double) microtime() * 1000000);
// generate random iv
$iv = mcrypt_create_iv(mcrypt_get_iv_size(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_256, MCRYPT_MODE_CBC), MCRYPT_RAND);


$crypted = fnEncrypt($messageClear, $aes256Key);

$newClear = fnDecrypt($crypted, $aes256Key);

echo
"IV:        <code>".$iv."</code><br/>".
"Encrypred: <code>".$crypted."</code><br/>".
"Decrypred: <code>".$newClear."</code><br/>";

function fnEncrypt($sValue, $sSecretKey) {
    global $iv;
    return rtrim(base64_encode(mcrypt_encrypt(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_256, $sSecretKey, $sValue, MCRYPT_MODE_CBC, $iv)), "\0\3");
}

function fnDecrypt($sValue, $sSecretKey) {
    global $iv;
    return rtrim(mcrypt_decrypt(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_256, $sSecretKey, base64_decode($sValue), MCRYPT_MODE_CBC, $iv), "\0\3");
}

You have to stock the IV to decode each message (IV are not secret). Each message is unique because each message has an unique IV.

• More informations about mode of operation (wikipedia).

Answer 6

I am using thing code for CCAVenue Payment Getway

class AES {

    public function encrypt($plainText, $key) {
        $secretKey = $this->hextobin(md5($key));
        $initVector = pack("C*", 0x00, 0x01, 0x02, 0x03, 0x04, 0x05, 0x06, 0x07, 0x08, 0x09, 0x0a, 0x0b, 0x0c, 0x0d, 0x0e, 0x0f);
        $openMode = mcrypt_module_open(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_128, '', 'cbc', '');
        $blockSize = mcrypt_get_block_size(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_128, 'cbc');
        $plainPad = $this->pkcs5_pad($plainText, $blockSize);
        if (mcrypt_generic_init($openMode, $secretKey, $initVector) != -1) {
            $encryptedText = mcrypt_generic($openMode, $plainPad);
            mcrypt_generic_deinit($openMode);
        }
        return bin2hex($encryptedText);
    }

    public function decrypt($encryptedText, $key) {
        $secretKey = $this->hextobin(md5($key));
        $initVector = pack("C*", 0x00, 0x01, 0x02, 0x03, 0x04, 0x05, 0x06, 0x07, 0x08, 0x09, 0x0a, 0x0b, 0x0c, 0x0d, 0x0e, 0x0f);
        $encryptedText = $this->hextobin($encryptedText);
        $openMode = mcrypt_module_open(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_128, '', 'cbc', '');
        mcrypt_generic_init($openMode, $secretKey, $initVector);
        $decryptedText = mdecrypt_generic($openMode, $encryptedText);
        $decryptedText = rtrim($decryptedText, "\0");
        mcrypt_generic_deinit($openMode);
        return $decryptedText;
    }

    //*********** Padding Function *********************

    public function pkcs5_pad($plainText, $blockSize) {
        $pad = $blockSize - (strlen($plainText) % $blockSize);
        return $plainText . str_repeat(chr($pad), $pad);
    }

    //********** Hexadecimal to Binary function for php 4.0 version ********

    public function hextobin($hexString) {
        $length = strlen($hexString);
        $binString = "";
        $count = 0;
        while ($count < $length) {
            $subString = substr($hexString, $count, 2);
            $packedString = pack("H*", $subString);
            if ($count == 0) {
                $binString = $packedString;
            } else {
                $binString .= $packedString;
            }

            $count += 2;
        }
        return $binString;
    }

}

User of code

$obj = new AES();
$key = "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX";
$plainText = "Hello World";
$encryptedText = $obj->encrypt($plainText, $key);
$rcvdString=$obj->decrypt($encryptedText,$key);