php mcrypt cookie - mysql query
 

Edited to clarify:

I'm using the following code to encrypt and decrypt a string. It all seems to work fine until I try and compare the decrypted string with the encrypted string:

<?php
// encrypt
$secret="a string I don't want people to see";
$key="A secret key for my cipher";
echo("<BR>secret = $secret");
$iv = mcrypt_create_iv(mcrypt_get_iv_size(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_256, MCRYPT_MODE_ECB), MCRYPT_RAND);
$cipher = mcrypt_encrypt(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_256, $key, $secret, MCRYPT_MODE_ECB, $iv);
echo("<BR>cipher = $cipher");
//decrypt
$iv = mcrypt_create_iv(mcrypt_get_iv_size(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_256, MCRYPT_MODE_ECB), MCRYPT_RAND);
$checkSecret=mcrypt_decrypt(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_256, $key, $cipher, MCRYPT_MODE_ECB, $iv);
echo("<BR>checkSecret = $checkSecret");
if ($checkSecret==$secret) {
echo ("<br>The decrypt has worked");
} else {
echo ("<br>It failed");
}

?>

Results:

secret = a string I don't want people to see
cipher = ¶%‡¿(Œ`O@ƒ¨%–„ü‹ï%ñG'MÇÈ¢¬vƒ¿{¢—›MºÔd??Lp)ô ÂõæSÙ„@ñF
‡mœ
checkSecret = a string I don't want people to see
It failed

Try it yourself and see what I mean. The strings are displayed on screen exactly as expected, but the comparison doesn't work.

I've run into this myself. Sometimes when decrypting, there are some non-blank binary characters added to the end of the string. This *may* represent itself as a box or some other odd character when the de-crypted text is displayed. I overcome this by doing a trim() on the de-crypted text, which ususally does the trick (although occasionally I've had to do something like a preg_replace('/[^a-zA-Z0-9 <whatever other valid characters> ]/', '', $decrypted_string)).

Try changing to and see if that does the trick.

TruckStuff, thanks for the advice, trim() seems to work.

However, I'm a bit concerend about your comments "(although occasionally I've had to do something like a preg_replace('/[^a-zA-Z0-9 <whatever other valid characters> ]/', '', $decrypted_string))".

Do you use the preg_replace in any specific circumstances, I'm thinking that although trim seems to work okay for the now, it might break at a later time?

Its more a matter of data filtering/programmer preference. If trim() does the job, use it. If you want to filter the de-crypted data a little more, use preg_replace(). Neither is better than the other for this purpose, although I suppose one could make the argument that one requires a bit more horsepower than the other in a given scenario.

Btw, I think the extra data has something to do with the encryption algorythm being block-level vs. byte-level, but I'm not familiar enough with encryption to know for sure.