Determine if string is in base64 using JavaScript

Question

I'm using the window.atob('string') function to decode a string from base64 to a string. Now I wonder, is there any way to check that 'string' is actually valid base64? I would like to be notified if the string is not base64 so I can perform a different action.

Answer 1

Building on @anders-marzi-tornblad's answer, using the regex to make a simple true/false test for base64 validity is as easy as follows:

var base64regex = /^([0-9a-zA-Z+/]{4})*(([0-9a-zA-Z+/]{2}==)|([0-9a-zA-Z+/]{3}=))?$/;

base64regex.test("SomeStringObviouslyNotBase64Encoded...");             // FALSE
base64regex.test("U29tZVN0cmluZ09idmlvdXNseU5vdEJhc2U2NEVuY29kZWQ=");   // TRUE

Update 2021

• Following the comments below it transpires this regex-based solution provides a more accurate check than simply try`ing atob because the latter doesn't check for =-padding. According to RFC4648 =-padding may only be ignored for base16-encoding or if the data length is known implicitely.
• Regex-based solution also seems to be the fastest as hinted by kai. As jsperf seems flaky atm i made a new test on jsbench which confirms this.

Answer 2

If you want to check whether it can be decoded or not, you can simply try decoding it and see whether it failed:

try {
    window.atob(str);
} catch(e) {
    // something failed

    // if you want to be specific and only catch the error which means
    // the base 64 was invalid, then check for 'e.code === 5'.
    // (because 'DOMException.INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR === 5')
}

Answer 3

This should do the trick.

function isBase64(str) {
    if (str ==='' || str.trim() ===''){ return false; }
    try {
        return btoa(atob(str)) == str;
    } catch (err) {
        return false;
    }
}

Answer 4

If "valid" means "only has base64 chars in it" then check against /[A-Za-z0-9+/=]/.

If "valid" means a "legal" base64-encoded string then you should check for the = at the end.

If "valid" means it's something reasonable after decoding then it requires domain knowledge.

Answer 5

I would use a regular expression for that. Try this one:

/^([0-9a-zA-Z+/]{4})*(([0-9a-zA-Z+/]{2}==)|([0-9a-zA-Z+/]{3}=))?$/

Explanation:

^                          # Start of input
([0-9a-zA-Z+/]{4})*        # Groups of 4 valid characters decode
                           # to 24 bits of data for each group
(                          # Either ending with:
    ([0-9a-zA-Z+/]{2}==)   # two valid characters followed by ==
    |                      # , or
    ([0-9a-zA-Z+/]{3}=)    # three valid characters followed by =
)?                         # , or nothing
$                          # End of input

Answer 6

This method attempts to decode then encode and compare to the original. Could also be combined with the other answers for environments that throw on parsing errors. Its also possible to have a string that looks like valid base64 from a regex point of view but is not actual base64.

if(btoa(atob(str))==str){
  //...
}

Answer 7

This is how it's done in one of my favorite validation libs:

const notBase64 = /[^A-Z0-9+\/=]/i;

export default function isBase64(str) {
  assertString(str); // remove this line and make sure you pass in a string
  const len = str.length;
  if (!len || len % 4 !== 0 || notBase64.test(str)) {
    return false;
  }
  const firstPaddingChar = str.indexOf('=');
  return firstPaddingChar === -1 ||
    firstPaddingChar === len - 1 ||
    (firstPaddingChar === len - 2 && str[len - 1] === '=');
}

https://github.com/chriso/validator.js/blob/master/src/lib/isBase64.js

Answer 8

Implementation in nodejs (validates not just allowed chars but base64 string at all)

    const validateBase64 = function(encoded1) {
        var decoded1 = Buffer.from(encoded1, 'base64').toString('utf8');
        var encoded2 = Buffer.from(decoded1, 'binary').toString('base64');
        return encoded1 == encoded2;
    }

Answer 9

For me, a string is likely an encoded base64 if:

1. its length is divisible by 4
2. uses A-Z a-z 0-9 +/=
3. only uses = in the end (0-2 chars)

so the code would be

function isBase64(str)
{
    return str.length % 4 == 0 && /^[A-Za-z0-9+/]+[=]{0,2}$/.test(str);
}

Answer 10

I have tried the below answers but there are some issues.

var base64regex = /^([0-9a-zA-Z+/]{4})*(([0-9a-zA-Z+/]{2}==)|([0-9a-zA-Z+/]{3}=))?$/;
base64regex.test(value)

when using this it will be true with "BBBBB" capital letters. and also it will be true with "4444".

I added some code to work correctly for me.

function (value) {
  var base64regex = /^([0-9a-zA-Z+/]{4})*(([0-9a-zA-Z+/]{2}==)|([0-9a-zA-Z+/]{3}=))?$/;
  if (base64regex.test(value) && isNaN(value) && !/^[a-zA-Z]+$/.test(value)) {
  return decodeURIComponent(escape(window.atob(value)));
}

Answer 11

Throwing my results into the fray here. In my case, there was a string that was not base64 but was valid base64 so it was getting decoded into gibberish. (i.e. yyyyyyyy is valid base64 according to the usual regex)

My testing resulted in checking first if the string was a valid base64 string using the regex others shared here and then decrypting it and testing if it was a valid ascii string since (in my case) I should only get ascii characters back. (This can probably be extended to include other characters that may not fall into ascii ranges.)

This is a bit of a mix of multiple answers.

let base64regex = /^([0-9a-zA-Z+/]{4})*(([0-9a-zA-Z+/]{2}==)|([0-9a-zA-Z+/]{3}=))?$/;
function isBase64(str) {
    if (str ==='' || str.trim() ===''){ return false; }
    try {
        if (base64regex.test(str)) {
            return /^[\x00-\x7F]*$/.test(atob(str));
        } else {
            return false
        }
    } catch (err) {
        // catch
    }
}

As always with my JavaScript answers, I have no idea what I am doing. So there might be a better way to write this out. But it works for my needs and covers the case when you have a string that isn't supposed to be base64 but is valid and still decrypts as base64.

Answer 12

Try the code below, where str is the string you want to check.

Buffer.from(str, 'base64').toString('base64') === str

Answer 13

I know its late, but I tried to make it simple here;

function isBase64(encodedString) {
    var regexBase64 = /^([0-9a-zA-Z+/]{4})*(([0-9a-zA-Z+/]{2}==)|([0-9a-zA-Z+/]{3}=))?$/;
    return regexBase64.test(encodedString);   // return TRUE if its base64 string.
}