Decode base64Url in Java

Question

https://web.archive.org/web/20110422225659/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base64#URL_applications

talks about base64Url - Decode

---

a modified Base64 for URL variant exists, where no padding '=' will be used, and the '+' and '/' characters of standard Base64 are respectively replaced by '-' and '_'

---

I created the following function:

public static String base64UrlDecode(String input) {
    String result = null;
    BASE64Decoder decoder = new BASE64Decoder();
    try {
        result = decoder.decodeBuffer(input.replace('-','+').replace('/','_')).toString();
    }
    catch (IOException e) {
        System.out.println(e.getMessage());
    }
    return result;
}

it returns a very small set of characters that don't even resemble to the expected results. any ideas?

Answer 1

I know the answer is already there, but still, if someone wants...

import java.util.Base64; 

public class Base64BasicEncryptionExample {  

    public static void main(String[] args) {  

       // Getting encoder  
       Base64.Encoder encoder = Base64.getUrlEncoder();  
       // Encoding URL  
       String eStr = encoder.encodeToString
                               ("http://www.javatpoint.com/javatutorial/".getBytes());  
       System.out.println("Encoded URL: "+eStr);  

       // Getting decoder  
       Base64.Decoder decoder = Base64.getUrlDecoder();  
       // Decoding URl  
       String dStr = new String(decoder.decode(eStr));  
       System.out.println("Decoded URL: "+dStr);  
    }  
}  

Took help from: https://www.javatpoint.com/java-base64-encode-decode

Answer 2

Base64.getUrlEncoder() already using -, _ instead of +, /.

See:

java-1.8.0/src.zip!/java/util/Base64.java

java.util.Base64

    /* Returns a Base64.Encoder that encodes using the URL and Filename safe type 
     * base64 encoding scheme.
     * Returns: A Base64 encoder.
     * */


    public static Encoder getUrlEncoder() {
         return Encoder.RFC4648_URLSAFE;
    }

...

    /*
     * It's the lookup table for "URL and Filename safe Base64" as specified in 
     * Table 2 of the RFC 4648, with the '+' and '/' changed to '-' and '_'. This 
     * table is used when BASE64_URL is specified.
     * */

    private static final char[] toBase64URL = {
        'A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E', 'F', 'G', 'H', 'I', 'J', 'K', 'L', 'M',
        'N', 'O', 'P', 'Q', 'R', 'S', 'T', 'U', 'V', 'W', 'X', 'Y', 'Z',
        'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'l', 'm',
        'n', 'o', 'p', 'q', 'r', 's', 't', 'u', 'v', 'w', 'x', 'y', 'z',
        '0', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9', '-', '_'
    };

...

    static final Encoder RFC4648_URLSAFE = new Encoder(true, null, -1, true);

Answer 3

Base64 encoding is part of the JDK since Java 8. URL safe encoding is also supported with java.util.Base64.getUrlEncoder(), and the "=" padding can be skipped by additionally using the java.util.Base64.Encoder.withoutPadding() method:

import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
import java.util.Base64;

public String encode(String raw) {
    return Base64.getUrlEncoder()
            .withoutPadding()
            .encodeToString(raw.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
}

Answer 4

This class can help:

import android.util.Base64;

public class Encryptor {

    public static String encode(String input) {
        return Base64.encodeToString(input.getBytes(), Base64.URL_SAFE);
    }

    public static String decode(String encoded) {
        return new String(Base64.decode(encoded.getBytes(), Base64.URL_SAFE));
    }
}

Answer 5

Java8+

import java.util.Base64;


return Base64.getUrlEncoder().encodeToString(bytes);

Answer 6

Guava now has Base64 decoding built in.

https://google.github.io/guava/releases/17.0/api/docs/com/google/common/io/BaseEncoding.html

Answer 7

In the Android SDK, there's a dedicated flag in the Base64 class: Base64.URL_SAFE, use it like so to decode to a String:

import android.util.Base64;
byte[] byteData = Base64.decode(body, Base64.URL_SAFE);
str = new String(byteData, "UTF-8");

Answer 8

In Java try the method Base64.encodeBase64URLSafeString() from Commons Codec library for encoding.

Answer 9

@ufk's answer works, but you don't actually need to set the urlSafe flag when you're just decoding.

urlSafe is only applied to encode operations. Decoding seamlessly handles both modes.

Also, there are some static helpers to make it shorter and more explicit:

import org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Base64;
import org.apache.commons.codec.binary.StringUtils;

public static String base64UrlDecode(String input) {
  StringUtils.newStringUtf8(Base64.decodeBase64(input));
}

Docs

• newStringUtf8()
• decodeBase64()

Answer 10

With the usage of Base64 from Apache Commons, who can be configured to URL safe, I created the following function:

import org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Base64;

public static String base64UrlDecode(String input) {
    String result = null;
    Base64 decoder = new Base64(true);
    byte[] decodedBytes = decoder.decode(input);
    result = new String(decodedBytes);
    return result;
}

The constructor Base64(true) makes the decoding URL-safe.

Answer 11

public static byte[] encodeUrlSafe(byte[] data) {
    byte[] encode = Base64.encode(data);
    for (int i = 0; i < encode.length; i++) {
        if (encode[i] == '+') {
            encode[i] = '-';
        } else if (encode[i] == '/') {
            encode[i] = '_';
        }
    }
    return encode;
}

public static byte[] decodeUrlSafe(byte[] data) {
    byte[] encode = Arrays.copyOf(data, data.length);
    for (int i = 0; i < encode.length; i++) {
        if (encode[i] == '-') {
            encode[i] = '+';
        } else if (encode[i] == '_') {
            encode[i] = '/';
        }
    }
    return Base64.decode(encode);
}

Answer 12

Right off the bat, it looks like your replace() is backwards; that method replaces the occurrences of the first character with the second, not the other way around.