[SOLVED] base64 encoding in program vs piping to base64 command-line utility

0x53h · 08-02-2016, 01:23 PM

What's going on when I pipe a string into base64 on the command line vs base64 encoding in perl or python?

Code:

user@box:~/$ perl -MMIME::Base64 -e 'print encode_base64("user\@example.com\0user\@example.com\0test")';                                                                                                 
dmljdG9yQHc2LmlvAHZpY3RvckB3Ni5pbwB0ZXN0

user@box:~/$ python -c "import base64; print(base64.b64encode('user@example.com\00user@example.com\00test'))"
dmljdG9yQHc2LmlvAHZpY3RvckB3Ni5pbwB0ZXN0

user@box:~/$ python -c "print('user@example.com\00user@example.com\00test').strip()" | base64                                                                                                      
dmljdG9yQHc2LmlvAHZpY3RvckB3Ni5pbwB0ZXN0Cg==

Rinndalir · 08-03-2016, 04:54 PM

Look at python -m pydoc print

Code:

A "'\n'" character is written at the end, unless the "print" statement
ends with a comma.

chrism01 · 08-04-2016, 01:01 AM

I knew that rang a bell, just couldn't remember until Rinndalir posted.

I came across the same thing a while back in bash

Code:

echo aaa |base64
YWFhCg==

echo -n aaa |base64
YWFh

0x53h · 08-05-2016, 10:39 AM

I see. I don't understand how to provide a coma at the end of the print statement. It can be done in Python2 with a future import making that line a bit awkard to type. Thanks though, this clears up the mystery. I believed .strip() would have taken care of that "\n".

Code:

$ python -c "from __future__ import print_function; print('user@example.com\00user@example.com\00test', end='')" | base64
dXNlckBleGFtcGxlLmNvbQB1c2VyQGV4YW1wbGUuY29tAHRlc3Q=

TIL: python -m pydoc foo and why so many base64 encoded strings end in ==