Encoding
Encoding is the process of transforming data into a different format using a specific scheme to standardize the way data can be stored, transmitted, or interpreted. Unlike encryption, encoding does not provide confidentiality or use a key, but plays a crucial role in interoperability and data exchange across diverse platforms and applications.
Here we find some common encoding methods:
ASCII
It is a 7-bit encoding standard that represents text using integer values in the 0-255 range. The values between 32-126 are known as printable characters, containing digits, letters, and punctuation values.
Here we find a little function to convert ASCII values into a readable string:
# This script converts ASCII values to a string
def ASCII_to_String(ascii_numbers): #This accepts a list
recovered = []
for value in ascii_numbers:
recovered.append(chr(value))
recovered = "".join(recovered)
return recovered
#Usage Example
ascii_numbers = [70, 76, 65, 71, 123, 102, 52, 107, 51, 95, 102, 108, 52, 103, 95, 102, 48, 114, 95, 116, 51, 115, 116, 49, 110, 103, 125]
print("Recovered String:", ASCII_to_String(ascii_numbers))In the same way, here we find a little function to convert a string into ASCII values:
# This script converts a string to ASCII values
def String_to_ASCII(message): #This accepts a string
ascii = []
for value in message:
ascii.append(ord(value))
return ascii
#Usage Example
message = "FLAG{f4k3_fl4g_f0r_t3st1ng}"
print("Ascii Values:", String_to_ASCII(message))We can also find a table with all the values and some of their representations.
Hexadecimal
In this encoding, each letter is converted to an ordinal number according to the ASCII table, then the decimal numbers are converted to base-16 numbers, otherwise known as hexadecimal, and finally, the numbers are combined into one long string.
It's common to use it to encode data for transport in a more portable format, and also to represent bytes that couldn't have printable ASCII values.
Here we find a little script to convert a hex string into bytes:
# This script converts a base64 string to a string
def Hex_to_Bytes(hex_value):
recovered = bytes.fromhex(hex_value)
return recovered
#Usage Example
hex_value = "464c41477b66346b335f666c34675f6630725f74337374316e677d"
print("Recovered Bytes:", Hex_to_Bytes(hex_value))In the same way, here we find a little script to convert bytes into a hex string:
# This script converts a string to a base64 string
def Bytes_to_Hex(message):
hex_string = message.hex()
return hex_string
#Usage Example
message = "FLAG{f4k3_fl4g_f0r_t3st1ng}"
print("Hex String:", Bytes_to_Hex(message))Base64
This is a representation of binary data as ASCII strings using an alphabet of 64 characters. Each character is passed into bits (each byte provides 8 bits) and then turned into groups of 6 bits to represent a numerical value, which is the new position in the encoding alphabet. In this mode, each 4 characters of Base64 represent three 8-bit bytes.
The string ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/ is the alphabet used to encode, and the = symbol is used for padding to ensure the length of the encoded value is a multiple of 4.
Base64 is most commonly used online, so binary data such as images can be easily included in HTML or CSS files.
Here we find a little script to convert a base64 string into bytes:
# This script converts a base string into bytes
import base64
def Base64_to_Bytes(base64_value):
recovered = base64.b64decode(base64_value)
return recovered
#Usage Example
base64_value = "RkxBR3tmNGszX2ZsNGdfZjByX3Qzc3Qxbmd9"
print("Recovered Bytes:", Base64_to_Bytes(base64_value))In the same way, here we find a little script to convert bytes into a base64 string:
# This script converts a string to base64 values
import base64
def Bytes_to_Base64(message):
base64_string = base64.b64encode(message)
return base64_string
#Usage Example
message = b"FLAG{f4k3_fl4g_f0r_t3st1ng}"
print("Hex String:", Bytes_to_Base64(message))Last updated