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Re:TIL that You can spot base64 encoded JSON, certificates, ... by snickerdoodle12 on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @03:39PM (#44803211)
Isn't this obvious to anyone who has seen a few base64 encoded json strings or certificates? ey and LS are a staple.
Re:TIL that You can spot base64 encoded JSON, certificates, ... by SkyPuncher on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @04:12PM (#44803640)
Probably is, but I still found it to be a fun tidbit.

I work with this stuff often enough to recognize something that looks like a key or a hash. I don't work with it often enough to have picked up `ey` and `LS`.

Re:TIL that You can spot base64 encoded JSON, certificates, ... by mmastrac on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @03:43PM (#44803263)
`MII` for RSA private keys.
Re:TIL that You can spot base64 encoded JSON, certificates, ... by Muromec on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @04:00PM (#44803477)
MII is not RSA, it's an opening header of asn1 structure encoded to DER -- 30 82 0x which is basically "{" when which can be pretty much anything from x509 certificate to private keys fro ECDSA.

Actual RSA oid is somewhere in the middle.

Re:TIL that You can spot base64 encoded JSON, certificates, ... by mmastrac on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @04:14PM (#44803667)
True, but for the most part, RSA keys are the only keys that anyone encounters that start with long SEQUENCEs requiring two-byte lengths.

`eY` could be any JSON, but it's most likely going to be a JWT.

Neither is a perfect signal, but contextually is more likely correct than not.

Re:TIL that You can spot base64 encoded JSON, certificates, ... by Muromec on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @04:22PM (#44803749)
That depends on the kind of abyss you are staring into. Mine had plenty of non-RSA keys, certificates (which are of course two-byte length all the time) and CMS containers.
Re:TIL that You can spot base64 encoded JSON, certificates, ... by InfoSecErik on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @03:53PM (#44803406)
IMO depends on your career. I did a lot of pentesting with Burp Suite so I was able to (forced to) pick it up.
Re:TIL that You can spot base64 encoded JSON, certificates, ... by FelipeCortez on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @03:46PM (#44803313)
I thought so too, but xkcd 1053 / lucky 10000, I guess! I knew about ey but not LS