PHP Converting Hex string to Byte Array - converting VB.Net to PHP - php

Question

I'm writing a PHP website that is accessing an encrypted MySQL database. The database is currently a back end to a VB.Net Windows forms program. This is all working fine, but I want to the PHP website to access some of the data and be able to decrypt/encrypt it. The fields are encrypted using Blowfish code originally written by David Ireland in VB6 and converted by Todd Acheson with a few tweaks from myself.
With the PHP Blowfish examples I've seen, the $iv is set at random, but I need it to be set to the same as that created in VB, so I'm attempting to convert the VB code to PHP.
I've started converting the code line by line, and from a technical perspective, it seems OK, but testing the first part of it doesn't provide the same results as with VB
Setting the key:
Dim aKey() as Byte = cv_BytesFromHex(MySecretKey)
Public Function cv_BytesFromHex(ByVal sInputHex As String) As Object
' Returns array of bytes from hex string in big-endian order
' E.g. sHex="FEDC80" will return array {&HFE, &HDC, &H80}
Dim i As Long
Dim M As Long
Dim aBytes() As Byte
If Len(sInputHex) Mod 2 <> 0 Then
sInputHex = "0" & sInputHex
End If
M = Len(sInputHex) \ 2
ReDim aBytes(M - 1)
For i = 0 To M - 1
Dim x = "&H" & Mid(sInputHex, i * 2 + 1, 2)
Debug.Print(x + " " + Val(x).ToString)
aBytes(i) = Val(x)
Next
cv_BytesFromHex = aBytes 'CopyArray(aBytes)
Return cv_BytesFromHex
End Function
Converting this function to PHP5.
public function cv_BytesFromHex($inputstring)
{
// Returns array of bytes from hex string in big-endian order
// e.g. shex="fedc80" will return array {&hfe, &hdc, &h80}
$i=0;
$m=0;
if (strlen($inputstring)/2 <> (int)(strlen($inputstring)/2)) {
$inputstring = "0".$inputstring;
}
$m = strlen($inputstring)/2;
echo 'Length '.strlen($inputstring).' = '.$m." elements</br>";
$abytes=array_fill(0,$m-1,0) ;
for ($i=0; $i<=$m-1;$i++) {
$raw=substr($inputstring, $i * 2 , 2);
$hexed=hexdec($raw);
echo 'Raw ='.$raw.' = '.$hexed.'</br>';
$abytes[$i]=$hexed;
}
return $abytes;
}
Testing with the key "1check".
VB output:
&H1C 28
&Hhe 0
&Hck 12
PHP output:
Length 6 = 3 elements
Raw =1c = 28
Raw =he = 14
Raw =ck = 12
So.. in this example, "1C" and "ck" give me the same values, but "he" doesn't
another example:
key =10stack
vb
&H01 1
&H0s 0
&Hta 0
&Hck 12
php
Length 8 = 4 elements
Raw =01 = 1
Raw =0s = 0
Raw =ta = 10
Raw =ck = 12
This one works:
key =1234wxyz
vb
&H12 18
&H34 52
&Hwx 0
&Hyz 0
php
Raw =12 = 18
Raw =34 = 52
Raw =wx = 0
Raw =yz = 0
Does anyone know why?

Answer 1

so, there is no errors here. h is ignored by hexdec and only e is decoded. cause...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexadecimal there is no h :)
and in VBA Val function returns 0, cause he is not valid hex-combination
<?php
function myHex($str)
{
if ($str === dechex(hexdec($str))) {
return hexdec($str);
}
return 0;
}
var_dump(myHex("he")); // returns 0