How do I base64 encode (decode) in C?

Question

Here's the one I'm using:

#include <stdint.h>
#include <stdlib.h>


static char encoding_table[] = {'A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E', 'F', 'G', 'H',
                                'I', 'J', 'K', 'L', 'M', 'N', 'O', 'P',
                                'Q', 'R', 'S', 'T', 'U', 'V', 'W', 'X',
                                'Y', 'Z', 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f',
                                'g', 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'l', 'm', 'n',
                                'o', 'p', 'q', 'r', 's', 't', 'u', 'v',
                                'w', 'x', 'y', 'z', '0', '1', '2', '3',
                                '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9', '+', '/'};
static char *decoding_table = NULL;
static int mod_table[] = {0, 2, 1};


char *base64_encode(const unsigned char *data,
                    size_t input_length,
                    size_t *output_length) {

    *output_length = 4 * ((input_length + 2) / 3);

    char *encoded_data = malloc(*output_length);
    if (encoded_data == NULL) return NULL;

    for (int i = 0, j = 0; i < input_length;) {

        uint32_t octet_a = i < input_length ? (unsigned char)data[i++] : 0;
        uint32_t octet_b = i < input_length ? (unsigned char)data[i++] : 0;
        uint32_t octet_c = i < input_length ? (unsigned char)data[i++] : 0;

        uint32_t triple = (octet_a << 0x10) + (octet_b << 0x08) + octet_c;

        encoded_data[j++] = encoding_table[(triple >> 3 * 6) & 0x3F];
        encoded_data[j++] = encoding_table[(triple >> 2 * 6) & 0x3F];
        encoded_data[j++] = encoding_table[(triple >> 1 * 6) & 0x3F];
        encoded_data[j++] = encoding_table[(triple >> 0 * 6) & 0x3F];
    }

    for (int i = 0; i < mod_table[input_length % 3]; i++)
        encoded_data[*output_length - 1 - i] = '=';

    return encoded_data;
}


unsigned char *base64_decode(const char *data,
                             size_t input_length,
                             size_t *output_length) {

    if (decoding_table == NULL) build_decoding_table();

    if (input_length % 4 != 0) return NULL;

    *output_length = input_length / 4 * 3;
    if (data[input_length - 1] == '=') (*output_length)--;
    if (data[input_length - 2] == '=') (*output_length)--;

    unsigned char *decoded_data = malloc(*output_length);
    if (decoded_data == NULL) return NULL;

    for (int i = 0, j = 0; i < input_length;) {

        uint32_t sextet_a = data[i] == '=' ? 0 & i++ : decoding_table[data[i++]];
        uint32_t sextet_b = data[i] == '=' ? 0 & i++ : decoding_table[data[i++]];
        uint32_t sextet_c = data[i] == '=' ? 0 & i++ : decoding_table[data[i++]];
        uint32_t sextet_d = data[i] == '=' ? 0 & i++ : decoding_table[data[i++]];

        uint32_t triple = (sextet_a << 3 * 6)
        + (sextet_b << 2 * 6)
        + (sextet_c << 1 * 6)
        + (sextet_d << 0 * 6);

        if (j < *output_length) decoded_data[j++] = (triple >> 2 * 8) & 0xFF;
        if (j < *output_length) decoded_data[j++] = (triple >> 1 * 8) & 0xFF;
        if (j < *output_length) decoded_data[j++] = (triple >> 0 * 8) & 0xFF;
    }

    return decoded_data;
}


void build_decoding_table() {

    decoding_table = malloc(256);

    for (int i = 0; i < 64; i++)
        decoding_table[(unsigned char) encoding_table[i]] = i;
}


void base64_cleanup() {
    free(decoding_table);
}

Keep in mind that this doesn't do any error-checking while decoding - non base 64 encoded data will get processed.

I know this question is quite old, but I was getting confused by the amount of solutions provided - each one of them claiming to be faster and better. I put together a project on github to compare the base64 encoders and decoders: https://github.com/gaspardpetit/base64/

At this point, I have not limited myself to C algorithms - if one implementation performs well in C++, it can easily be backported to C. Also tests were conducted using Visual Studio 2015. If somebody wants to update this answer with results from clang/gcc, be my guest.

FASTEST ENCODERS: The two fastest encoder implementations I found were Jouni Malinen's at http://web.mit.edu/freebsd/head/contrib/wpa/src/utils/base64.c and the Apache at https://opensource.apple.com/source/QuickTimeStreamingServer/QuickTimeStreamingServer-452/CommonUtilitiesLib/base64.c.

Here is the time (in microseconds) to encode 32K of data using the different algorithms I have tested up to now:

jounimalinen                25.1544
apache                      25.5309
NibbleAndAHalf              38.4165
internetsoftwareconsortium  48.2879
polfosol                    48.7955
wikibooks_org_c             51.9659
gnome                       74.8188
elegantdice                 118.899
libb64                      120.601
manuelmartinez              120.801
arduino                     126.262
daedalusalpha               126.473
CppCodec                    151.866
wikibooks_org_cpp           343.2
adp_gmbh                    381.523
LihO                        406.693
libcurl                     3246.39
user152949                  4828.21

(René Nyffenegger's solution, credited in another answer to this question, is listed here as adp_gmbh).

Here is the one from Jouni Malinen that I slightly modified to return a std::string:

/*
* Base64 encoding/decoding (RFC1341)
* Copyright (c) 2005-2011, Jouni Malinen <[email protected]>
*
* This software may be distributed under the terms of the BSD license.
* See README for more details.
*/

// 2016-12-12 - Gaspard Petit : Slightly modified to return a std::string 
// instead of a buffer allocated with malloc.

#include <string>

static const unsigned char base64_table[65] =
    "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/";

/**
* base64_encode - Base64 encode
* @src: Data to be encoded
* @len: Length of the data to be encoded
* @out_len: Pointer to output length variable, or %NULL if not used
* Returns: Allocated buffer of out_len bytes of encoded data,
* or empty string on failure
*/
std::string base64_encode(const unsigned char *src, size_t len)
{
    unsigned char *out, *pos;
    const unsigned char *end, *in;

    size_t olen;

    olen = 4*((len + 2) / 3); /* 3-byte blocks to 4-byte */

    if (olen < len)
        return std::string(); /* integer overflow */

    std::string outStr;
    outStr.resize(olen);
    out = (unsigned char*)&outStr[0];

    end = src + len;
    in = src;
    pos = out;
    while (end - in >= 3) {
        *pos++ = base64_table[in[0] >> 2];
        *pos++ = base64_table[((in[0] & 0x03) << 4) | (in[1] >> 4)];
        *pos++ = base64_table[((in[1] & 0x0f) << 2) | (in[2] >> 6)];
        *pos++ = base64_table[in[2] & 0x3f];
        in += 3;
    }

    if (end - in) {
        *pos++ = base64_table[in[0] >> 2];
        if (end - in == 1) {
            *pos++ = base64_table[(in[0] & 0x03) << 4];
            *pos++ = '=';
        }
        else {
            *pos++ = base64_table[((in[0] & 0x03) << 4) |
                (in[1] >> 4)];
            *pos++ = base64_table[(in[1] & 0x0f) << 2];
        }
        *pos++ = '=';
    }

    return outStr;
}

FASTEST DECODERS: Here are the decoding results and I must admit that I am a bit surprised:

polfosol                    45.2335
wikibooks_org_c             74.7347
apache                      77.1438
libb64                      100.332
gnome                       114.511
manuelmartinez              126.579
elegantdice                 138.514
daedalusalpha               151.561
jounimalinen                206.163
arduino                     335.95
wikibooks_org_cpp           350.437
CppCodec                    526.187
internetsoftwareconsortium  862.833
libcurl                     1280.27
LihO                        1852.4
adp_gmbh                    1934.43
user152949                  5332.87

Polfosol's snippet from base64 decode snippet in c++ is the fastest by a factor of almost 2x.

Here is the code for the sake of completeness:

static const int B64index[256] = { 0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,
0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,
0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0, 62, 63, 62, 62, 63, 52, 53, 54, 55,
56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,
7,  8,  9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25,  0,
0,  0,  0, 63,  0, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40,
41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51 };

std::string b64decode(const void* data, const size_t len)
{
    unsigned char* p = (unsigned char*)data;
    int pad = len > 0 && (len % 4 || p[len - 1] == '=');
    const size_t L = ((len + 3) / 4 - pad) * 4;
    std::string str(L / 4 * 3 + pad, '\0');

    for (size_t i = 0, j = 0; i < L; i += 4)
    {
        int n = B64index[p[i]] << 18 | B64index[p[i + 1]] << 12 | B64index[p[i + 2]] << 6 | B64index[p[i + 3]];
        str[j++] = n >> 16;
        str[j++] = n >> 8 & 0xFF;
        str[j++] = n & 0xFF;
    }
    if (pad)
    {
        int n = B64index[p[L]] << 18 | B64index[p[L + 1]] << 12;
        str[str.size() - 1] = n >> 16;

        if (len > L + 2 && p[L + 2] != '=')
        {
            n |= B64index[p[L + 2]] << 6;
            str.push_back(n >> 8 & 0xFF);
        }
    }
    return str;
}

But you can also do it in openssl (openssl enc command does it....), look at the BIO_f_base64() function

Here's my solution using OpenSSL.

/* A BASE-64 ENCODER AND DECODER USING OPENSSL */
#include <openssl/pem.h>
#include <string.h> //Only needed for strlen().

char *base64encode (const void *b64_encode_this, int encode_this_many_bytes){
    BIO *b64_bio, *mem_bio;      //Declares two OpenSSL BIOs: a base64 filter and a memory BIO.
    BUF_MEM *mem_bio_mem_ptr;    //Pointer to a "memory BIO" structure holding our base64 data.
    b64_bio = BIO_new(BIO_f_base64());                      //Initialize our base64 filter BIO.
    mem_bio = BIO_new(BIO_s_mem());                           //Initialize our memory sink BIO.
    BIO_push(b64_bio, mem_bio);            //Link the BIOs by creating a filter-sink BIO chain.
    BIO_set_flags(b64_bio, BIO_FLAGS_BASE64_NO_NL);  //No newlines every 64 characters or less.
    BIO_write(b64_bio, b64_encode_this, encode_this_many_bytes); //Records base64 encoded data.
    BIO_flush(b64_bio);   //Flush data.  Necessary for b64 encoding, because of pad characters.
    BIO_get_mem_ptr(mem_bio, &mem_bio_mem_ptr);  //Store address of mem_bio's memory structure.
    BIO_set_close(mem_bio, BIO_NOCLOSE);   //Permit access to mem_ptr after BIOs are destroyed.
    BIO_free_all(b64_bio);  //Destroys all BIOs in chain, starting with b64 (i.e. the 1st one).
    BUF_MEM_grow(mem_bio_mem_ptr, (*mem_bio_mem_ptr).length + 1);   //Makes space for end null.
    (*mem_bio_mem_ptr).data[(*mem_bio_mem_ptr).length] = '\0';  //Adds null-terminator to tail.
    return (*mem_bio_mem_ptr).data; //Returns base-64 encoded data. (See: "buf_mem_st" struct).
}

char *base64decode (const void *b64_decode_this, int decode_this_many_bytes){
    BIO *b64_bio, *mem_bio;      //Declares two OpenSSL BIOs: a base64 filter and a memory BIO.
    char *base64_decoded = calloc( (decode_this_many_bytes*3)/4+1, sizeof(char) ); //+1 = null.
    b64_bio = BIO_new(BIO_f_base64());                      //Initialize our base64 filter BIO.
    mem_bio = BIO_new(BIO_s_mem());                         //Initialize our memory source BIO.
    BIO_write(mem_bio, b64_decode_this, decode_this_many_bytes); //Base64 data saved in source.
    BIO_push(b64_bio, mem_bio);          //Link the BIOs by creating a filter-source BIO chain.
    BIO_set_flags(b64_bio, BIO_FLAGS_BASE64_NO_NL);          //Don't require trailing newlines.
    int decoded_byte_index = 0;   //Index where the next base64_decoded byte should be written.
    while ( 0 < BIO_read(b64_bio, base64_decoded+decoded_byte_index, 1) ){ //Read byte-by-byte.
        decoded_byte_index++; //Increment the index until read of BIO decoded data is complete.
    } //Once we're done reading decoded data, BIO_read returns -1 even though there's no error.
    BIO_free_all(b64_bio);  //Destroys all BIOs in chain, starting with b64 (i.e. the 1st one).
    return base64_decoded;        //Returns base-64 decoded data with trailing null terminator.
}

/*Here's one way to base64 encode/decode using the base64encode() and base64decode functions.*/
int main(void){
    char data_to_encode[] = "Base64 encode this string!";  //The string we will base-64 encode.

    int bytes_to_encode = strlen(data_to_encode); //Number of bytes in string to base64 encode.
    char *base64_encoded = base64encode(data_to_encode, bytes_to_encode);   //Base-64 encoding.

    int bytes_to_decode = strlen(base64_encoded); //Number of bytes in string to base64 decode.
    char *base64_decoded = base64decode(base64_encoded, bytes_to_decode);   //Base-64 decoding.

    printf("Original character string is: %s\n", data_to_encode);  //Prints our initial string.
    printf("Base-64 encoded string is: %s\n", base64_encoded);  //Prints base64 encoded string.
    printf("Base-64 decoded string is: %s\n", base64_decoded);  //Prints base64 decoded string.

    free(base64_encoded);                //Frees up the memory holding our base64 encoded data.
    free(base64_decoded);                //Frees up the memory holding our base64 decoded data.
}