Perl and Crypt::CBC question

powerhouse has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

This is more of a Crypt::CBC question... So if you are familiar with it, I would appreciate some help, if you can.

I wrote a script, which encrypts some data before saving it in a database. It is not really important and imperitive that I make it work, but, I would like to know what I'm doing wrong...

Here is the error I'm getting:

Software error:
Cipher stream did not contain IV or salt, and you did not specify thes
+e values in new() at /home/##username##/public_html/vars.cgi line 425
[download]

Here is that subroutine that has that line:

sub decryptData
{
my $ciphertext = shift;
my $key = "Some Key Here, but Not Shown Here for several purposes";
my $cipher = Crypt::CBC->new ($key, "Blowfish"); # This is line 425

    return ($cipher->decrypt_hex ($ciphertext));
}
[download]

Do you see what it is talking about by Salt or IV?

thx for any/all help,
Richard

Comment on Perl and Crypt::CBC question Select or Download Code

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Re: Perl and Crypt::CBC question by jimbojones (Friar) on Jan 10, 2006 at 03:49 UTC
For more general information, check out CBC in Wikipedia. The idea is that for each pass of the cipher over a 'block' (8 bytes or more), the plaintext is XOR'd with the previous encrypted block before it is encrypted. For this method, for the first block, you need something to XOR in with your block. Hence the "Initialization Vector" (IV). To reverse the process (decrypt), you need to tell the CBC what the IV was. So either it's passed as an argument, or it's embedded in the ciphertext itself: `RandomIV12345678{real crypto text here}` [download] here the IV is 12345678 (not too random). Note that the IV isn't critical to the strength of the cipher, but is used to make attacks on the cipher more difficult, since the same piece of plaintext encrypted with the same cipher and key will lead to different encrypted text if you start with different (random) IVs. - j	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Perl and Crypt::CBC question by McDarren (Abbot) on Jan 10, 2006 at 03:15 UTC
erm, rtfm :) From Crypt::CBC: `$cipher = Crypt::CBC->new( -key => 'my secret key', -cipher => 'Blowfish', -salt => 1 );` [download] and... `-salt Enables OpenSSL-compatibility. If equal to a value of "1" then causes a random salt to be generated and used to derive the encryption key and IV. Othe +r true values are taken to be the literal salt.` [download] and... `The -salt argument actives an OpenSSL-compatible method of generating +the encryption/decryption key and IV. If salt has the value "1", then + a random salt is computed (highly recommended). Any other non-false +value will be interpreted as the bytes of the actual salt to use. If +you provide the salt, it must be exactly 8 bytes in length. It is hig +hly recommended that you use -salt=>1, as this may become the default + in future versions of this module.` [download] I think that pretty much says it all :)	[reply] [d/l] [select]