Encryption

Atom's encrypter uses OpenSSL to provide AES-256 and AES-128 encryption. You are strongly encouraged to use Atom's built-in encryption facilities and not attempt to roll your own "home grown" encryption algorithms. All of Atom's encrypted values are signed using a message authentication code (MAC) so that their underlying value can not be modified once encrypted.

Configuration

Before using Atom's encrypter, you must set a app_key option in your config/env.json configuration file. You should use the php atom secure command to generate this key since this Atom command will use PHP's secure random bytes generator to build your key. If this value is not properly set, all values encrypted by Atom will be insecure.

Using The Encrypter

You should use the crypter global helper to access all encryption methods.

Encrypting Value

You may encrypt a value using the encrypt helper. All encrypted values are encrypted using OpenSSL and the AES-256-CBCcipher. Furthermore, all encrypted values are signed with a message authentication code (MAC) to detect any modifications to the encrypted string:

$message = "My secret message";

$secret = encrypt($message);

Encrypt Without Serialization

Encrypted values are passed through serialize during encryption, which allows for encryption of objects and arrays. Thus, non-PHP clients receiving encrypted values will need to unserialize the data. If you would like to encrypt and decrypt values without serialization, you may use the encryptString and decryptString methods on the crypter helper:

$encrypted = crypter()->encryptString('Hello world.');

$decrypted = crypter()->decryptString($encrypted);

Decrypting A Value

You may decrypt values using the decrypt helper. If the value can not be properly decrypted, such as when the MAC is invalid, an Exception will be thrown:

try {
    $decrypted = decrypt($encryptedValue);
} catch (Exception $e) {
    //
}