For verification use some sort of message verification algorithm, like a checksum or a signature. Check out String::CRC32 for an example of such an algorithm. Or Digest::MD5, if you'd prefer something like that.

This is good practice no matter what, partly just so that you can ensure that there's no tampering with your messages.

For the problem of not reading the socket correctly: how are you reading from the socket? You could try using sysread and syswrite. That's what I'm doing, and it works great.

If you'd like an example of some of this, check out (shameless plug) the packet code in Net::SSH::Perl, my Perl implementation of an ssh client. SSH network packets are encrypted and contain message verification (in the form of checksums), so you might get some ideas there. The packet code is in Net::SSH::Perl::Packet.

In reply to Re: Network programming with encryption by btrott
in thread Network programming with encryption by astanley

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.