Creating base64-encoded encryption keys
This section describes how to base64-encode your key value for proper key creation. This is required for MD5 authentication.
The following examples show you how to use utilities that are readily available on your operating system to receive the encoded key string.
There are many tools you can use to base64 encode your key material. For example, to use OpenSSL to create and encode new or existing key material, see Hyper Protect Crypto Services or Key Protect documentation.
Windows users
You can use Powershell to base64-encode your key material.
Key string input
To encode a raw key string, first convert the string into bytes using UTF-8 encoding. Then, convert the bytes into a base64-encoded string:
$KEY_VALUE = "abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789"
$ENCODED_KEY = [Convert]::ToBase64String([Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetBytes($KEY_VALUE))
To verify that the value was encoded properly, print the $ENCODED_KEY variable to the console:
Write-Output $ENCODED_KEY
Output: YWJjZGVmMDEyMzQ1Njc4OWFiY2RlZjAxMjM0NTY3ODlhYmNkZWYwMTIzNDU2Nzg5YWJjZGVmMDEyMzQ1Njc4OQ==
Key file input
To encode a key string from a file to its base64 value, first get the contents of the file. Then, convert the contents into bytes using UTF-8 encoding. In turn, you can then convert the bytes into a base64-encoded string using the same methods as the key string input:
$KEY_FILE = "c:\path\to\file\key.txt"
$KEY_VALUE = get-content $KEY_FILE
$ENCODED_KEY = [Convert]::ToBase64String([Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetBytes($KEY_VALUE))
Again, verify by logging the $ENCODED_KEY value:
Write-Output $ENCODED_KEY
Output: YWJjZGVmMDEyMzQ1Njc4OWFiY2RlZjAxMjM0NTY3ODlhYmNkZWYwMTIzNDU2Nzg5YWJjZGVmMDEyMzQ1Njc4OQ==
MacOS and Linux users
You can use the base64 utility available in the bash shell to base64-encode your key material.
Key string input
To encode a raw string to its base64 value with base64, pipe the string as input to the utility. Use printf to avoid adding a newline character:
KEY_VALUE="abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789"
printf '%s' $KEY_VALUE | base64
Output: YWJjZGVmMDEyMzQ1Njc4OWFiY2RlZjAxMjM0NTY3ODlhYmNkZWYwMTIzNDU2Nzg5YWJjZGVmMDEyMzQ1Njc4OQ==
Key file input
To encode a key string from a file to its base64 value, first get the file content, removing any new lines. Then, pipe this value to the base64 utility. Again, use printf to avoid adding a newline character:
KEY_FILE="path/to/file/key.txt"
KEY_VALUE=$(tr -d '\n' < $KEY_FILE)
printf '%s' $KEY_VALUE | base64
Output: YWJjZGVmMDEyMzQ1Njc4OWFiY2RlZjAxMjM0NTY3ODlhYmNkZWYwMTIzNDU2Nzg5YWJjZGVmMDEyMzQ1Njc4OQ==