CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javasecurityhashbase64
user2963244
user2963244

Reputation: 3

Base64 Encoding encrypted password hashes

I'm Currently creating a web application that requires passwords to be encrypted and stored in a database. I found the following Guide that encrypts passwords using PBKDF2WithHmacSHA1. In the example provided the getEncryptedPassword method returns a byte array.

Are there any advantages in doing Base64 encoding the result? Any Disadvantages?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1610

Answers (2)

John Percival Hackworth
John Percival Hackworth

Reputation: 11531

Assuming a reasonable database there is no advantage, since it's just an encoding scheme. There is a size increase as a consequence of base 64 encoding, which is a disadvantage. If your database reliably stores 8-bit bytes, just store the hash in the database.

Upvotes: 0

rolfl
rolfl

Reputation: 17707

The byte[] array is the smallest mechanism for storing the value (storage space wise). If you have lots of these values it may make sense to store them as bytes. Depending on where you store the result, the format may make a difference too. Most databases will accomodate byte[] values fairly well, but it can be cumbersome (depending on the database). Stores like text files and XML documents, etc. obviously will struggle with the byte[] array.

In most circumstances I feel there are two formats that make sense, Hexadecimal representation, or byte[]. I seldom think that the advantages of Base64 for short values (less than 32 characters) are worth it (for larger items then sure, use base64, and there's a fantastic library for it too).

This is obviously all subjective.....

Converting values to Hexadecimal are quite easy: see How to convert a byte array to a hex string in Java?

Hex output is convenient, and easier to manage than Base64 which has a more complicated algorithm to build, and is thus slightly slower.....

Upvotes: 1

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