Base64: representing bytes as text without secrecy

Useful to know

base64.b64encode(b'cat') gives b'Y2F0'. Decoding restores the bytes without requiring a secret key. [1]

Encoding is useful for transport through text formats, but increases size. It does not make a password or document confidential. Limit the size of incoming Base64 data and validate its format against the protocol rather than assuming every decoded result is safe content.