AES Initialization Vector alongside cipher text

Question

Is it safe to concat IV and cipher text and store it as a single entity, like a varchar row in SQL database? I use AES-256, block size 128 bits, CBC mode

Answer 1

Yes. The Wikipedia article on this is a recommended read. In short the IV is not a second key so it is harmless (and usually necessary) to include it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initialization_vector?wprov=sfla1