Description
Encrypts a string using a specific algorithm and encoding method.
Returns
String; can be much longer than the original string.
Category
Security functions, String functions
Function syntax
Encrypt(string, key, encoding, algorithm, IV_Salt, iterations)
Decrypt,EncryptBinary,DecryptBinary
History
- ColdFusion (2023 release) Update 8 and ColdFusion (2021 release) Update 14: Changed the default algorithm from CFMX_COMPAT to AES/CBC/PKCS5Padding.
- ColdFusion (2021 release): Added support for authentication encryption.
- ColdFusion (2018 release): Introduced named parameters.
- ColdFusion 8: Added support for encryption using the RSA BSafe Crypto-J library on Enterprise Edition.
- ColdFusion MX 7.01: Added the IVorSalt and iterations parameters.
- ColdFusion MX 7: Added the algorithm and encoding parameters.
Parameters
Parameter |
Description |
|---|---|
string |
String to encrypt. |
key |
String. Key or seed used to encrypt the string.
|
algorithm |
(Optional) The algorithm to use to encrypt the string. The Enterprise Edition of ColdFusion installs the RSA BSafe Crypto-J library, which provides FIPS-140 Compliant Strong Cryptography. It includes the following algorithms:
In addition to these algorithms, you can use the algorithms provided in the Standard Edition of ColdFusion. The Standard Edition of ColdFusion installs a cryptography library with the following algorithms:
If you install a security provider with additional cryptography algorithms, you can also specify any of its string encryption and decryption algorithms. |
encoding |
(Optional; if you specify this parameter, also specify the algorithm parameter). The binary encoding in which to represent the data as a string.
|
IV_Salt |
(Optional) Specify this parameter to adjust ColdFusion encryption to match the details of other encryption software. If you specify this parameter, also specify thealgorithmparameter.
|
iterations |
(Optional) The number of iterations to transform the password into a binary key. Specify this parameter to adjust ColdFusion encryption to match the details of other encryption software. If you specify this parameter, also specify the algorithm parameter with a Password Based Encryption (PBE) algorithm. Do not specify this parameter for Block Encryption algorithms. Use the same value to encrypt and decrypt the data. |
Usage
This function uses a symmetric key-based algorithm, in which the same key is used to encrypt and decrypt a string. The security of the encrypted string depends on maintaining the secrecy of the key.
The following are the FIPS-140 approved algorithms included in the RSA BSafe Crypto-J library that are used by ColdFusion. Some of these are not used with the encrypt function, but are used with other functions:
AES – ECB, CBC, CFB (128), OFB (128) – [128, 192, 256-bit key sizes]
AES – CTR
Diffie-Hellman Key Agreement
DSA
FIPS 186-2 General Purpose [(x-Change Notice); (SHA-1)]
FIPS 186-2 [(x-Change Notice); (SHA-1)]
HMAC-SHAx (where x is 1, 224, 256, 384, or 512)
RSA PKCS#1 v1.5 (sign, verify) (SHA-1,SHA-224,SHA-256,SHA-384,SHA-512)
Secure Hash Standard (SHA-1, SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512)
Triple DES - ECB, CBC, CFB (64 bit), and OFB (64 bit)
All algorithms included in the RSA BSafe Crypto-J library are available for use in the Enterprise Edition. In certain cases, you may want to disable some algorithms. To disable the DESX, RC5, and MD5PRNG algorithms, specify the following in the JVM arguments on the Java and JVM page of the ColdFusion Administrator:
-Dcoldfusion.enablefipscrypto=true |
FIPS-140 approved cryptography is not available if you are running ColdFusion on WebSphere of JBoss.
To use the IBM/Lotus Sametime Instant Messaging Gateway in the Enterprise edition, disable the FIPS-140-only cryptography setting by specifying the following in the JVM arguments on the Java and JVM page of the ColdFusion Administrator:
-Dcoldfusion.disablejsafe=true |
In Standard Edition, for all algorithms except the default algorithm, ColdFusion uses the Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) and installs a Sun Java runtime that includes the Sun JCE default security provider. This provider includes the algorithms listed in the Parameters section. The JCE framework includes facilities for using other provider implementations; however, Adobe cannot provide technical support for third-party security providers.
The default algorithm, which is the same one used in ColdFusion 5 and ColdFusion MX, uses an XOR-based algorithm that uses a pseudo-random 32-bit key, based on a seed passed by the user as a function parameter. This algorithm is less secure than the other available algorithms.
Example
The following example encrypts and decrypts a text string. It lets you specify the encryption algorithm and encoding technique. It also has a field for a key seed to use with the CFMX_COMPAT algorithm. For all other algorithms, it generates a secret key.
<h3>Encrypt Example</h3>
|
<cfscript>
myMessage = "Message to encrypt"
key = generateSecretKey('AES');
encryptedMsg = encrypt(myMessage,key,'AES', 'Base64');
writeOutput(encryptedMsg);
</cfscript>
Output
JbRh2Ez58OJc9wpZUDefz0GZyDnA0/IMuV9qaRcFzCY=
EXAMPLE 2
<cfscript>
// string data
a = "abcd"
// generate the key
key = GenerateSecretKey("AES")
iterations="AssoicatedData"
randomIntegers = [];
// generate the SALT value
for ( i = 1 ; i <= 12 ; i++ ) {
arrayAppend( randomIntegers, randRange( -128, 127, "SHA1PRNG" ) );
}
initializationVector = javaCast( "byte[]", randomIntegers )
enc1 = Encrypt(string=a,
key=key,
encoding="UU",
algorithm="AES/GCM/NoPadding",
IV_Salt=initializationVector,
iterations=iterations)
writeDump(enc1)
</cfscript>
Output
4Z1!>"1'E8=$3Y%'"KJ!/T-3S?[X