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Cryptography

Decrypt Triple DES ciphertext

Triple DES Decrypt restores plaintext from 3DES ciphertext when you give it the passphrase used to encrypt it. It accepts the salted Base64 that Triple DES Encrypt here produces, and equivalent openssl enc -des-ede3-cbc output made with the legacy key derivation. Engineers use it to audit legacy payment integrations, unwrap bank test vectors and confirm a stored blob is Triple DES before migrating it to AES.

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How to use Triple DES Decrypt

  1. Open Triple DES Decrypt in the Toolbox101 app.
  2. Paste the complete ciphertext into the Ciphertext (Base64) box, including its U2FsdGVkX1 prefix. Line breaks are ignored.
  3. Type the passphrase used for encryption into the Passphrase box, matching case and spaces exactly.
  4. Read the recovered plaintext in the Output box.
  5. Click Copy to save it, or re-check the passphrase if the box shows an error.

Worked example

Triple DES Decrypt returns the output below for this combination.

Input

U2FsdGVkX1/4bJgBgk56umGAiPv8orYRAgN17dTpYiIeZB+/7As0MA==

Key

3des-demo-key

Output

3DES round-trip works

Check it yourself: open Triple DES Decrypt and enter the same input and key.

Frequently asked questions

What does a wrong passphrase give?

Usually an error, "Could not decrypt", and no text. The tool cannot tell a wrong passphrase from damaged ciphertext, so check the passphrase character by character first. Because the mode has no integrity check, a wrong passphrase can occasionally produce noise that happens to be valid text.

Which ciphertext does this tool decrypt?

Salted OpenSSL-style Base64 beginning with U2FsdGVkX1: from Triple DES Encrypt here, from CryptoJS, and from openssl enc -des-ede3-cbc run with the legacy MD5 derivation. A headerless raw layout is not supported, because without the salt the key cannot be reproduced from the passphrase.

Why decrypt 3DES data at all if it is deprecated?

Because a great deal of legacy data exists: old payment batches, card-data test keys and integration fixtures were encrypted with Triple DES and have to be read during migrations. Deprecation means do not create new 3DES ciphertext, not that existing ciphertext stops decrypting. This tool reads it so you can move the data to AES.

Use Triple DES Decrypt now

Open Triple DES Decrypt in the app

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