Encryption

Encrypting data with PHP using the phpSec library

Encryption is a easy and secure way of protection your data. phpSec implements symmetric encryption using the mcrypt library, end is extremely easy to use.


$data = 'This is some extremely secret information.';
$encrypted = phpsecCrypt::encrypt($data, 'secret key');


The above code will encrypt the $data string, using the "secret key". Note that you can also pass arrays to encrypt.
$encrypted will contain something like:

{
  "cdata":"qLUmR1giVp01tVslDexNn4wKSFGTOD+v2PV1MuPs\/eL26IuUvM8+jQ==",

Effective key size

Creating keys for use with encryption is not as easy as the guys writing the PHP manual thinks it is. The following example on the mcrypt_module_open() page shows just that. To generate a key they use the following example:

/* Create key */
$key = substr(md5('very secret key'), 0, $ks);


Already in 2006 "Mon" comments:

In the text example:
$key = substr(md5('very secret key'), 0, $ks);
Builds a key of $ks/2 effective bytes.

Netcraft reports: 14% of SSL Certificates signed using Vulnerable MD5 Algorithm

Netcraft reports that 14% of SSL Certificates are signed using md5.

PHP hash tool

I often find myself in the need to create a md5/sha256 hash for various reasons. Most of the time I use Google to find a javascript tool that i can use. This is fine, but a bit inconvenient, so i decided to create a little script that can create all sorts of hashes from a string.