Base64 encode with Stream_StringToBinary inserts a newline, breaking the string?
base64, encoding, vbscript
Solution
This is because of how the Base64 encoding deals with long strings.
From RFC 2045 - 6.8 Base64 Content-Transfer-Encoding The encoded output stream must be represented in lines of no more than 76 characters each. All line breaks or other characters not found in Table 1 must be ignored by decoding software. In base64 data, characters other than those in Table 1, line breaks, and other white space probably indicate a transmission error, about which a warning message or even a message rejection might be appropriate under some circumstances.
Because it is adding the `vbLf` (`Chr(10)`) after the encode should mean you are safe to just remove it using
strEnc = Replace(strEnc, vbLf, "")
Some languages have a "no wrapping" argument that can be passed to stop the Linefeed being added after the 76th character but I don't know of one in the Microsoft XMLDOM implementation, noted here Base64 -- do we really want/need line breaks every 76 characters? it looks as though it was suggested but there is no evidence it was ever implemented.
Problem
Maybe I'm crazy, but it looks like the famous code to run Base64 in VB inserts a newline character (ascii 10) at the 73rd position, which subsequently makes the encoded string invalid for Basic authentication - or anything else for that matter. Original code: ``` Function Stream_StringToBinary(Text) Const adTypeText = 2 Const adTypeBinary = 1 'Create Stream object Dim BinaryStream 'As New Stream Set BinaryStream = CreateObject("ADODB.Stream") 'Specify stream type - we want To save text/string data. BinaryStream.Type = adTypeText 'Specify charset For the source text (unicode) data. BinaryStream.CharSet = "us-ascii" 'Open the stream And write text/string data To the object BinaryStream.Open BinaryStream.WriteText Text 'Change stream type To binary BinaryStream.Position = 0 BinaryStream.Type = adTypeBinary 'Ignore first two bytes - sign of BinaryStream.Position = 0 'Open the stream And get binary data from the object Stream_StringToBinary = BinaryStream.Read Set BinaryStream = Nothing End Function Function Base64Encode(sText) Dim oXML, oNode Set oXML = CreateObject("Msxml2.DOMDocument.3.0") Set oNode = oXML.CreateElement("base64") oNode.dataType = "bin.base64" oNode.nodeTypedValue =Stream_StringToBinary(sText) Base64Encode = oNode.text Set oNode = Nothing Set oXML = Nothing End Function '------------------- and here goes the encoding ----------------------- strEnc = Base64Encode( "AVERYLONGUSERNAMEHELLOTHE123:AVERYLONGPASSWORDWHYAREYOUSOLONGREALLYANNOY123") '---------------------------------------------------------------------- ``` RESULT: ``` QVZFUllMT05HVVNFUk5BTUVIRUxMT1RIRTEyMzpBVkVSWUxPTkdQQVNTV09SRFdIWUFSRVlP VVNPTE9OR1JFQUxMWUFOTk9ZMTIz ``` Looks like this occurs on very long UID/PWD pairs. Has anyone encountered this?