Why do carrots disappear when coding a string in Base64?

Question

Hi.  I am created a Base64 string using two functions I found online 

public static string Encode(string plainText) {
  var plainTextBytes = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(plainText);
  return System.Convert.ToBase64String(plainTextBytes);
}

public static string Decode(string base64EncodedData) {
  var base64EncodedBytes = System.Convert.FromBase64String(base64EncodedData);
  return System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(base64EncodedBytes);
}

So I do string encoded = Encode("test^string"); but if I Console.WriteLine the encoded string I see "teststring".  How can I encode it and preserve the carrot?  I also tried two crypto functions I found online: 

public static string EncryptString(string Message, string Passphrase) {
  byte[] Results;
  System.Text.UTF8Encoding UTF8 = new System.Text.UTF8Encoding();
  MD5CryptoServiceProvider HashProvider = new MD5CryptoServiceProvider();
  byte[] TDESKey = HashProvider.ComputeHash(UTF8.GetBytes(Passphrase));
  TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider TDESAlgorithm = new TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider();
  TDESAlgorithm.Key = TDESKey;
  TDESAlgorithm.Mode = CipherMode.ECB;
  TDESAlgorithm.Padding = PaddingMode.PKCS7;
  byte[] DataToEncrypt = UTF8.GetBytes(Message);
  try {
    ICryptoTransform Encryptor = TDESAlgorithm.CreateEncryptor();
    Results = Encryptor.TransformFinalBlock(DataToEncrypt, 0, DataToEncrypt.Length);
  } finally {
    TDESAlgorithm.Clear();
    HashProvider.Clear();
  }
  return Convert.ToBase64String(Results);
}

public static string DecryptString(string Message, string Passphrase) {
  byte[] Results;
  System.Text.UTF8Encoding UTF8 = new System.Text.UTF8Encoding();
  MD5CryptoServiceProvider HashProvider = new MD5CryptoServiceProvider();
  byte[] TDESKey = HashProvider.ComputeHash(UTF8.GetBytes(Passphrase));
  TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider TDESAlgorithm = new TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider();
  TDESAlgorithm.Key = TDESKey;
  TDESAlgorithm.Mode = CipherMode.ECB;
  TDESAlgorithm.Padding = PaddingMode.PKCS7;
  byte[] DataToDecrypt = Convert.FromBase64String(Message);
  try {
    ICryptoTransform Decryptor = TDESAlgorithm.CreateDecryptor();
    Results = Decryptor.TransformFinalBlock(DataToDecrypt, 0, DataToDecrypt.Length);
  } finally {
    TDESAlgorithm.Clear();
    HashProvider.Clear();
  }
  return UTF8.GetString(Results);
}

 I did string encoded = EncryptString("test^string", "somepassphrase"); then when I output it I get the same "teststring" as the other function.  Augh!

Answer 1

Close the thread, if its resolved..

Answer 2

Thanks again!

Answer 3

Use System.Net.WebUtility.HtmlDecode instead of Decode.

Answer 4

.NET 4 Client Profile.  Actually, I just found the problem.  When you said it worked fine for you, I thought maybe I should try it as basic as possible, not as part of my actual program so in my main function I put Console.WriteLine(Decode(Encode("test^string"))); and it actually outputted it correctly.

 

After wracking my brain, the only difference I saw was that when it fails in the normal part of my code, it's being passed as a command line argument so I had it echo the input rather than the encoded output and sure enough, it was coming in as teststring.

 

Once I encapsulated the command line argument with double quotes, the problem was solved.  Thanks.

Answer 5

Code working fine for me. Which framework are you using?