usebruno/bruno · error · Error

Decrypt failed: unrecognized string format

Error message

Decrypt failed: unrecognized string format

What it means

Thrown by decryptString when typeof str !== 'string'. This is the input-type guard at the top of the function, before any format parsing. It fires when the caller hands in null, undefined, a Buffer, a number, or an object instead of a string.

Source

Thrown at packages/bruno-electron/src/utils/encryption.js:131

      return `$${AES256_ALGO}:${encryptedString}`;
    } catch (err) {
      // Any error indicates the passkey is unusable; return empty string
      return '';
    }
  }

  if (safeStorage && safeStorage.isEncryptionAvailable()) {
    const encryptedString = safeStorageEncrypt(str);
    return `$${ELECTRONSAFESTORAGE_ALGO}:${encryptedString}`;
  }

  const encryptedString = aes256Encrypt(str);
  return `$${AES256_ALGO}:${encryptedString}`;
}

function decryptString(str, passkey = null) {
  if (typeof str !== 'string') {
    throw new Error('Decrypt failed: unrecognized string format');
  }
  if (str.length === 0) {
    return '';
  }

  // Find the index of the first colon
  const colonIndex = str.indexOf(':');

  if (colonIndex === -1) {
    throw new Error('Decrypt failed: unrecognized string format');
  }

  // Extract algo and encryptedString based on the colon index
  const algo = str.substring(1, colonIndex);
  const encryptedString = str.substring(colonIndex + 1);

  if ([ELECTRONSAFESTORAGE_ALGO, AES256_ALGO].indexOf(algo) === -1) {
    throw new Error('Decrypt failed: Invalid algo');

View on GitHub (pinned to 9bdd81c7bd)

Solutions

1. Null/empty-check before calling decryptString (empty string short-circuits to '' inside the function, so coerce null/undefined to '').
2. If you hold a Buffer, call .toString('hex') or the appropriate encoding first.
3. Prefer decryptStringSafe which returns {success:false} instead of throwing on bad input.

Example fix

// before
const plain = decryptString(maybeMissing);

// after
const plain = (typeof maybeMissing === 'string' && maybeMissing.length)
  ? decryptString(maybeMissing)
  : '';
// or simply:
const { value } = decryptStringSafe(maybeMissing ?? '');

function decryptStringOrEmpty(str) {
  if (typeof str !== 'string') return '';
  if (str.length === 0) return '';
  return decryptString(str);
}

function isEncryptedString(value) {
  return typeof value === 'string';
}

const { success, value } = decryptStringSafe(typeof stored === 'string' ? stored : '');
return success ? value : '';

When it happens

Trigger: Calling decryptString(null), decryptString(undefined), or decryptString(someBuffer) — typically because a missing DB/config value was forwarded without a presence check, or a Buffer was not first converted to a string.

Common situations: Optional secret field not populated in storage and passed through unguarded; refactor changed the stored type from string to Buffer/JSON; value loaded from a column that returned null.

Related errors

• WSDL content must be a string
• AES256 decryption failed: ${fallbackErr.message}
• SafeStorage decryption failed: ${err.message}
• Decrypt failed: Invalid algo
• directory: path is null

AI-assisted analysis of usebruno/bruno@9bdd81c7bd (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c5ffcccd9f50edfa. Report an issue: GitHub.