Issue with decrypting aes password in php - php

Question

I am working on some PHP code to perform AES string encryption and decryption. The encryption is working fine but I can't seem to decrypt it.
Below is the code that does the encryption and adds the required padding.
function encrypt($data)
{
$iv = "PRIVATE";
$key = CIPHERKEY;
return base64_encode(mcrypt_encrypt(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_128, $key, addpadding($data), MCRYPT_MODE_CBC, $iv));
}
function addpadding($string, $blocksize = 16)
{
$len = strlen($string);
$pad = $blocksize - ($len % $blocksize);
$string .= str_repeat(chr($pad), $pad);
return $string;
}
The code above is working fine the code below where it does the decryption keeps on failing. I try and do the decryption and then strip the padding but false is always returned from the padding function.
Below is the code that does the decryption and the stripping.
function strippadding($string)
{
$slast = ord(substr($string, -1));
$slastc = chr($slast);
$pcheck = substr($string, -$slast);
if(preg_match("/$slastc{".$slast."}/", $string)){
$string = substr($string, 0, strlen($string)-$slast);
return $string;
} else {
return "false";
}
}
function decrypt($data)
{
$iv = "PRIVATE";
$key = CIPHERKEY;
//$decoded = mcrypt_decrypt(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_128, $key, $data, MCRYPT_MODE_CBC, $iv);
$decrytped = mcrypt_decrypt(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_128, $key, $data, MCRYPT_MODE_CBC, $iv);
$base64Decoded = base64_decode($decrytped);
return strippadding($base64Decoded);
}
Thanks for any help you can provide.

Answer 1

In your decryption method, the decrypt and base64 steps are backwards. It's important that in whatever order you do your operations for encrypting, you do the reverse to decrypt.
In your encrypt method, you're base64 encoding the ciphertext:
base64_encode(mcrypt_encrypt(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_128, $key, addpadding($data), MCRYPT_MODE_CBC, $iv));
When you decrypt, you need to undo the base64 encoding, and then decrypt that result.
$base64Decoded = base64_decode($data);
$decrytped = mcrypt_decrypt(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_128, $key, $base64Decoded, MCRYPT_MODE_CBC, $iv);
Also, it looks like mcrypt will handle padding uneven blocks, so your addpadding() method might be superfluous.

Answer 2

You are using a too-short IV which is less than the blocksize. I assume this results in using a different IV on decryption. Blocksize is 16 bytes, so the IV should be 16 bytes, but your fixed-string IV is only 7 bytes (8 if you count the terminating zero byte which the underlying C code probably adds).
Instead of using a fixed string, you should be using a random IV generated by mcrypt_create_iv(). You can find out the length of one block by using mcrypt_get_iv_size() as shown in Example 1 in the mcrypt_create_iv() PHP manual. You would then send/store the random IV prepended to the ciphertext so you know what the IV was on decryption.
Also, mcrypt does its own padding, so you don't need to. And, as mfanto pointed out, you need to decode Base64 before decryption, not after.