Storing the output of openssl_random_pseudo_bytes in Postgres using php? I get an error: invalid byte sequence for encoding "UTF8"

Question

I'm generating a salt using the openssl_random_pseudo_bytes function in php. However, I am unable to store the output into a PostgreSQL database.

I get an error:

ERROR: invalid byte sequence for encoding "UTF8"

Now I realize the encoding of the database in question is set to UTF8, and that the output of the function doesn't match, but what is the correct way of solving this?

This is a random salt, and I'm worried that converting it to UTF8 via whatever process will not make it cryptographically safe anymore?

Answer 1

The openssl_random_pseudo_bytes function outputs binary data, and I was trying to store the output in a database field of data type character varying, mistakenly treating it like a string.

bytea is the correct data type for the field in the PostgreSQL database.

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.2/interactive/datatype-binary.html

Update: Also, it seems you need to use pg_escape_bytea on the output to be able to actually insert the binary data into the database.

Thanks to deceze, lechlukasz, and VolkerK in the comments for providing the answer.