Convert bytes to string or store as bytes python

Question

I'm trying to encrypt string with python by RSA but the encrypted string returns as bytes I'm trying to find a way either to convert bytes to string and store it in db or store it as bytes as it is but I couldn't find either of them i use this project in django and mysql i need some help on it and this is the full source code

import secrets
import string

import rsa


def create_token():
    alphabet = string.ascii_letters + string.digits
    token = ''.join(secrets.choice(alphabet) for i in range(64))
    return token


def generate_keys():
    (pubKey, privKey) = rsa.newkeys(2048)
    with open('keys/pubkey.pem', 'wb') as f:
        f.write(pubKey.save_pkcs1('PEM'))

    with open('keys/privkey.pem', 'wb') as f:
        f.write(privKey.save_pkcs1('PEM'))


def load_keys():
    with open('E:/workstation/projects/amon/cryptoPATH/keys/pubkey.pem', 'rb') as f:
        pubKey = rsa.PublicKey.load_pkcs1(f.read())

    with open('E:/workstation/projects/amon/cryptoPATH/keys/privkey.pem', 'rb') as f:
        privKey = rsa.PrivateKey.load_pkcs1(f.read())

    return pubKey, privKey


def encrypt_rsa(msg, key):
    return rsa.encrypt(msg.encode('utf-16'), key)


def decrypt_rsa(ciphertext, key):
    try:
        return rsa.decrypt(ciphertext, key).decode('utf-16')
    except:
        return False


def sign_sha1(msg, key):
    return rsa.sign(msg.encode('utf-16'), key, 'SHA-1')


def verify_sha1(msg, signature, key):
    try:
        return rsa.verify(msg.encode('utf-16'), signature, key) == 'SHA-1'
    except:
        return False


# generate_keys()
pubKey, privKey = load_keys()


def encrypt(msg):
    ciphertext = encrypt_rsa(msg, pubKey)
    return ciphertext


def decrypt(message):
    plaintext = decrypt_rsa(message, privKey)
    if plaintext:
        return plaintext
    else:
        return 'Could not decrypt the message.'


message = 'encrypted'
ciphertext = encrypt(message)
plaintext = decrypt(ciphertext)
print(str(ciphertext)[2:-1])

print(f'msg= {message}\n cipher= {ciphertext}\n plain= {plaintext}\n')

OUTPUT

Answer 1

by using base64 solved my problem

import base64
import secrets
import string

import rsa


def create_token():
    alphabet = string.ascii_letters + string.digits
    token = ''.join(secrets.choice(alphabet) for i in range(32))
    return token


def generate_keys():
    (pubKey, privKey) = rsa.newkeys(2048)
    with open('keys/pubkey.pem', 'wb') as f:
        f.write(pubKey.save_pkcs1('PEM'))

    with open('keys/privkey.pem', 'wb') as f:
        f.write(privKey.save_pkcs1('PEM'))


def load_keys():
    with open('keys/pubkey.pem', 'rb') as f:
        pubKey = rsa.PublicKey.load_pkcs1(f.read())

    with open('keys/privkey.pem', 'rb') as f:
        privKey = rsa.PrivateKey.load_pkcs1(f.read())

    return pubKey, privKey


def encrypt_rsa(msg, key):
    return rsa.encrypt(msg.encode('utf-8'), key)


def decrypt_rsa(ciphertext, key):
    try:
        return rsa.decrypt(ciphertext, key).decode('utf-8')
    except:
        return False


def sign_sha1(msg, key):
    return rsa.sign(msg.encode('utf-8'), key, 'SHA-1')


def verify_sha1(msg, signature, key):
    try:
        return rsa.verify(msg.encode('utf-8'), signature, key) == 'SHA-1'
    except:
        return False


generate_keys()
pubKey, privKey = load_keys()


def encrypt(msg):
    ciphertext = encrypt_rsa(msg, pubKey)
    encoded = base64.b64encode(ciphertext)
    return encoded.decode()


def decrypt(message):
    message = base64.b64decode(message)
    plaintext = decrypt_rsa(message, privKey)
    if plaintext:
        return plaintext
    else:
        return 'Could not decrypt the message.'