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Summary Table Full Records

RFC 4648, "The Base16, Base32, and Base64 Data Encodings", October 2006

Source of RFC: IETF - NON WORKING GROUP
Area Assignment: app

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Errata ID: 8669
Status: Reported
Type: Technical
Publication Format(s) : TEXT
Reported By: Park Jaeon
Date Reported: 2025-12-03

Section 4 says:

   The encoding process represents 24-bit groups of input bits as output
   strings of 4 encoded characters.  Proceeding from left to right, a
   24-bit input group is formed by concatenating 3 8-bit input groups.
   These 24 bits are then treated as 4 concatenated 6-bit groups, each
   of which is translated into a single character in the base 64
   alphabet.

It should say:

   The encoding process represents 24-bit groups of input bits as output
   strings of 4 encoded characters.  Proceeding from left to right, a
   24-bit input group is formed by concatenating 3 8-bit input groups.
   These 24 bits are then treated as 4 concatenated 6-bit groups, each
   of which is translated into a single character in the base 64
   alphabet. When an octet stream is encoded via the base 64 encoding, the
   octet stream must be presumed to be ordered with the most-significant-
   bit first.  That is, the first bit in the stream will be the high-
   order bit in the first octet, the eighth bit will be the low-
   order bit in the first octet, and so on.

Notes:

Section 6 (Base 32 Encoding) defines the bit order of an octet stream, while Section 4 does not.

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