json_decode() fails on json string with more byte length than visible characters
json, non-printing-characters, php
Solution
Most likely you need to strip off the padding from your decrypted data. There are 124 visible characters in your string but `var_dump` reports 144. Which means 20 characters of padding needs to be removed (a series of "\0" bytes at the end of your string).
Probably that's 4 "\0" bytes at the end of a block + an empty 16-bytes block (to mark the end of the data).
How are you currently decrypting/encrypting your string?
Edit:
You need to add this to trim the zero bytes at the end of the string:
$jsonData = rtrim($jsonData, "\0");
Problem
This does not work: ``` $jsonDecode = json_decode($jsonData, TRUE); ``` However if I copy the string from `$jsonData` and put it inside the decode function manually it does work. This works: ``` $jsonDecode = json_decode('{"id":"0","bid":"918","url":"http:\/\/www.google.com","md5":"6361fbfbee69f444c394f3d2fa062f79","time":"2014-06-02 14:20:21"}', TRUE); ``` I did output `$jsonData` copied it and put in like above in the decode function. Then it worked. However if I put `$jsonData` directly in the decode function it does not. `var_dump($jsonData)` shows: ``` string(144) "{"id":"0","bid":"918","url":"http:\/\/www.google.com","md5":"6361fbfbee69f444c394f3d2fa062f79","time":"2014-06-02 14:20:21"}" ``` But if count these character, there are only 124. The `$jsonData` comes from a encrypted `$_GET` variable. To encrypt it I use this: ``` $key = "SOME KEY"; $iv_size = mcrypt_get_iv_size(MCRYPT_BLOWFISH, MCRYPT_MODE_ECB); $iv = mcrypt_create_iv($iv_size, MCRYPT_RAND); $enc = mcrypt_encrypt(MCRYPT_BLOWFISH, $key, $data, MCRYPT_MODE_ECB, $iv); $iv = rawurlencode(base64_encode($iv)); $enc = rawurlencode(base64_encode($enc)); //To Decrypt $iv = base64_decode(rawurldecode($_GET['i'])); $enc = base64_decode(rawurldecode($_GET['e'])); $data = mcrypt_decrypt(MCRYPT_BLOWFISH, $key, $enc, MCRYPT_MODE_ECB, $iv); ```