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On Thu, 14 Sep 2017 13:09:54 +0000 "Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org> wrote: > Hi Folks, > > > Is base64 encoded data good? Bad? A security risk? A simple mechanism for > data privacy? It is probably all of those. Below I have attempted to > objectively state the facts. Am I missing any facts? /Roger > Seems right. > > > 1. Base64-encoded data is plain text, consisting of these 64 ASCII > characters: a-z, A-Z, 0-9, +, / and the equals symbol ( = ). > > 2. Any type of file, from plain text to binary executable, can be > base64-encoded. > > 3. There is nothing in base64-encoded data which tells the media type > of the data. External information must be provided to tell the media type. > Without external information, the media type must be discovered (if possible). > > 4. Decoding base64 text is a trivial task. > > 5. Data that is base64-encoded cannot be directly viewed, used, or > inspected. > > 6. Compared to data that is not encoded, viewing/using/inspecting > base64-encoded data requires an additional step: decode and then > view/use/inspect. > > 7. Without external information about the media type of the data that > is base64-encoded, there are two additional steps to viewing/using/inspecting > base64-encoded data: decode, determine the media type (if possible), and then > view/use/inspect. > > 8. Text formats such as XML and JSON cannot carry binary data. If > binary data must be carried by a text format, the binary data can be > base64-encoded, thus generating plain text, and then the base64-encoded plain > text can be carried by the text format. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Shlomi Fish http://www.shlomifish.org/ List of Portability Libraries - http://shlom.in/port-libs <PerlJam> I’m trying to achieve world peace and this regex is the last thing standing in my way! ;) Please reply to list if it's a mailing list post - http://shlom.in/reply .
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