About Hash
Understanding Base64 encoding and AES-256 encryption
Base64 is an encoding scheme, not encryption.
Base64 encoding converts binary data into a set of 64 ASCII characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9, +, /). It's designed to represent binary data in environments that only support text, ensuring data integrity during transfer.
Key characteristics of Base64:
- Increases size by approximately 33% (3 bytes become 4 characters)
- Fully reversible with no data loss
- Provides no security - anyone can decode it
- Commonly used for data transfer, not data protection
// Example of Base64 encoding
"Hello World" → "SGVsbG8gV29ybGQ="Base64 is used extensively in:
- Email attachments (MIME)
- Data URLs in web pages
- Storing binary data in JSON
- Embedding images in CSS/HTML
- API authentication (Basic Auth)