Simply use base64 and base64 -d:
zsh> echo -n "username:password"|base64
dXNlcm5hbWU6cGFzc3dvcmQ=
Note: the -n option prevents echo to output a trailing newline (you do not want to encode \n).
zsh> echo dXNlcm5hbWU6cGFzc3dvcmQ=|base64 -d
username:password
base64 encoding is widely used in the web. It is mainly used to carry binary formatted data across channels that only support text content (e.g. HTTP requests or e-mail attachments). In the context of data-exchange through APIs, it is broadly used in the authentication process to include your credentials in the headers:
{
"Authorization": "Basic <Base64Encoded(username:password)>"
}
Using the Curl Request command:
curl https://your-url
-H "Authorization: Bearer {token}"
The token being most often your base64 encoded and colon separated credentials (or any other specified credentials).
Using Python
Base64 encoding/decoding with Python:
python> import base64
python> encoded = base64.b64encode(b"username:password")
python> print(encoded)
b'dXNlcm5hbWU6cGFzc3dvcmQ='
python> decoded = base64.b64decode(b'dXNlcm5hbWU6cGFzc3dvcmQ=')
python> print(decoded)
b'username:password'
Notes:
- With the aforementioned python code, you will then have to decode the b”string” to string. This can be done using the
.decode()method:
b'your-string'.decode()
- If you are on VSC (Visual Studio Code) you can then encode/decode on the fly using an extension e.g. vscode-base64.