Cannot decode base64+deflate data

Question

I am lost with decoding the following base64 string

nVJPb4IwFL/7KUjvAgUM8CIuZiabicsSNR68deXhWKBteGVx336FbJnz4MG+U997/f1L5yTaxsBGn3Rvt0hGK0LPO7eNIhhnBes7BVpQTaBEiwRWwm75soHID8F02mqpGzZZrwpGScZjkUgpMolpFCfRLH/DPKlmaZXGMkqrMq/CMi6Zd8COaq0K5lCYtybqca3ICmVdK+TZlIfTONxzDtEMeHZk3grJ1krY8dW7tQaCgEepH7rikLoTEHaf2AWNPtXqodUlFonDVr++9rpgH1jq82BsusT8eWPa1yd9RLHdf7HFZD4MYBTTXWRwOwJBjnZQxRaDKnKy6tL4RFrWnWzQl7qdBxfIPzwGdlbYnu4I+wrh0Tm9A8U7iKbH28s0EsCulxKJBuLgmvm693f//6sW3w==

It should be valid base64 data representing deflate data of original XML. When I try online decoder here: https://www.samltool.com/decode.php it gives me the proper XML.

I am doing these two steps:

string text = MyClass::decode_base64(input);
text = MyClass::stringDeflateDecode(text);

First I decode the base64 string:

string MyClass::decode_base64(string str)
{
    using namespace boost::archive::iterators;
    typedef transform_width<binary_from_base64<remove_whitespace<string::const_iterator> >, 8, 6> ItBinaryT;
    try {
        boost::erase_all(str, "\r");
        boost::erase_all(str, "\n");
        // If the input isn't a multiple of 4, pad with =
        size_t num_pad_chars((4 - str.size() % 4) % 4);
        str.append(num_pad_chars, '=');
        size_t pad_chars(std::count(str.begin(), str.end(), '='));
        std::replace(str.begin(), str.end(), '=', 'A'); // replace '=' by base64 encoding of '\0'
        string output(ItBinaryT(str.begin()), ItBinaryT(str.end()));
        output.erase(output.end() - pad_chars, output.end());
        return output;
    } catch (...) {
        return string("");
    }
}

The code is basically from here Decode Base64 String Using Boost and it was working fine for text-only base64 decoding (no binary deflate data).

Then I would like to decode the deflate:

string MyClass::stringDeflateDecode(const std::string& data)
{
    stringstream compressed(data);
    stringstream decompressed;

    boost::iostreams::filtering_streambuf<boost::iostreams::input> in;
    in.push(boost::iostreams::zlib_decompressor());
    in.push(compressed);
    boost::iostreams::copy(in, decompressed);

    return decompressed.str();
}

but ::copy operation throws an exception: zlib error: iostream error

Thanks for any hints!

Answer 1

That is Base-64 encoded raw deflate data. That means compressed data in the deflate format, but no zlib nor gzip wrapper around that deflate data. It looks like zlib_decompressor has a noheader option that you should set to true.