Encryption

    Laravel's encrypter uses OpenSSL to provide AES-256 and AES-128 encryption. You are strongly encouraged to use Laravel's built-in encryption facilities and not attempt to roll your own "home grown" encryption algorithms. All of Laravel's encrypted values are signed using a message authentication code (MAC) so that their underlying value can not be modified once encrypted.

    Before using Laravel's encrypter, you must set a option in your config/app.php configuration file. You should use the php artisan key:generate command to generate this key since this Artisan command will use PHP's secure random bytes generator to build your key. If this value is not properly set, all values encrypted by Laravel will be insecure.

    Encrypting A Value

    You may encrypt a value using the encrypt helper. All encrypted values are encrypted using OpenSSL and the cipher. Furthermore, all encrypted values are signed with a message authentication code (MAC) to detect any modifications to the encrypted string:

    Encrypting Without Serialization

    Decrypting A Value

    You may decrypt values using the decrypt helper. If the value can not be properly decrypted, such as when the MAC is invalid, an Illuminate\Contracts\Encryption\DecryptException will be thrown: