Using Protocol Buffer to Serialize Bytes Python3

Question

I am trying to serialize a bytes object - which is an initialization vector for my program's encryption. But, the Google Protocol Buffer only accepts strings. It seems like the error starts with casting bytes to string. Am I using the correct method to do this? Thank you for any help or guidance!

Or also, can I make the Initialization Vector a string object for AES-CBC mode encryption?

Code

Cast the bytes to a string
- string_iv = str(bytes_iv, 'utf-8')
Serialize the string using SerializeToString():
- serialized_iv = IV.SerializeToString()
Use ParseToString() to recover the string:
- IV.ParseFromString( serialized_iv )
And finally, UTF-8 encode the string back to bytes:
- bytes_iv = bytes(IV.string_iv, encoding= 'utf-8')

Error

string_iv = str(bytes_iv, 'utf-8') UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0x9b in position 3: invalid start byte

lenz · Accepted Answer · 2019-10-07 18:06:42Z

1

If you must cast an arbitrary bytes object to str, these are your option:

simply call str() on the object. It will turn it into repr form, ie. something that could be parsed as a bytes literal, eg. "b'abc\x00\xffabc'"
decode with "latin1". This will always work, even though it technically makes no sense if the data isn't text encoded with Latin-1.
use base64 or base85 encoding (the standard library has a base64 module wich covers both)

answered Oct 7, 2019 at 18:06

lenz

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