Encryption Helpers

The package exposes two global helpers.

crypto_encode()

function crypto_encode($data, string $type = CryptorType::SYMMETRIC): string

Behavior:

1. serializes the input with PHP serialize(...)
2. resolves a cryptor through CryptorFactory::get($type)
3. calls encrypt(...) on the resolved cryptor

Implications

• scalar values, arrays, and objects all go through serialization first
• the output format is helper-level ciphertext, not the raw representation of the original value
• the default cryptor type is symmetric

crypto_decode()

function crypto_decode(string $encryptedData, string $type = CryptorType::SYMMETRIC)

Behavior:

1. resolves a cryptor through CryptorFactory::get($type)
2. decrypts the string
3. runs @unserialize(...) on the decrypted result
4. returns the unserialized value when that result is not false
5. otherwise returns the decrypted string

Type and lifecycle caveats

Asymmetric helper calls depend on shared instance reuse

Because the asymmetric adapter generates a key pair at construction time, this works only while the same factory-managed adapter instance is reused:

$encrypted = crypto_encode('secret', CryptorType::ASYMMETRIC);
$value = crypto_decode($encrypted, CryptorType::ASYMMETRIC);

Within one live DI container, CryptorFactory memoization preserves that key pair.

Across a container reset, process restart, or any new asymmetric adapter instance, the same ciphertext is no longer expected to decrypt correctly.

false does not round-trip cleanly

As noted in the package contract, helper decoding cannot distinguish:

• "unserialize failed"
• "unserialize succeeded and the actual value is boolean false"

So helper consumers should not rely on exact false round-tripping.

Where helpers are used in core

Current framework code uses these helpers in at least two places:

• Cookie storage encrypts values before writing and decrypts on read
• Session storage encrypts values before storing and decrypts on read

That makes symmetric mode part of the framework's default data-at-rest behavior for those packages.