AES key (string) input, unable to be converted to corresponding byte sequences correctly-CodePudding

My python program takes a AES key as input. For example,

\xee~\xb0\x94Lh\x9fn\r?\x18\xdf\xa4_7I\xf7\xd8T?\x13\xd0\xbd4\x8eQ\x9b\x89\xa4c\xf9\xf1

This string input must now be converted back to a byte sequences, so that the key can be used in decryption.

aes_key = str.encode(user_input) # user_input being the key is string format

When I print "aes_key" this is the output

\\xee~\\xb0\\x94Lh\\x9fn\\r?\\x18\\xdf\\xa4_7I\\xf7\\xd8T?\\x13\\xd0\\xbd4\\x8eQ\\x9b\\x89\\xa4c\\xf9\\xf1

Due to the addition "\" the key is incorrect and I can not use it for decryption.

I have tried

aes_key = aes_key.replace(b'\\\\', b'\\')

but this does not fix it. Please help.

CodePudding user response：

After some guesswork of what your input might be, I got the following:

input_string = "\\xee~\\xb0\\x94Lh\\x9fn\\r?\\x18\\xdf\\xa4_7I\\xf7\\xd8T?\\x13\\xd0\\xbd4\\x8eQ\\x9b\\x89\\xa4c\\xf9\\xf1"

print(input_string) 
# \xee~\xb0\x94Lh\x9fn\r?\x18\xdf\xa4_7I\xf7\xd8T?\x13\xd0\xbd4\x8eQ\x9b\x89\xa4c\xf9\xf1

print(repr(input_string))
# '\\xee~\\xb0\\x94Lh\\x9fn\\r?\\x18\\xdf\\xa4_7I\\xf7\\xd8T?\\x13\\xd0\\xbd4\\x8eQ\\x9b\\x89\\xa4c\\xf9\\xf1'

output_bytes = bytes(input_string, "utf-8").decode("unicode_escape").encode("latin_1") 

print(output_bytes)
# b'\xee~\xb0\x94Lh\x9fn\r?\x18\xdf\xa4_7I\xf7\xd8T?\x13\xd0\xbd4\x8eQ\x9b\x89\xa4c\xf9\xf1'