AES (Advanced Encryption Standard)

AES is a symmetric encryption algorithm widely used for securing sensitive data. It operates on fixed block sizes of 128 bits and supports key lengths of 128, 192, or 256 bits.

Parameters

Key: The encryption/decryption key (16, 24, or 32 bytes for AES-128, AES-192, or AES-256)
IV (Initialization Vector): A random block used as salt for key generation (16 bytes)
Mode: CBC (Cipher Block Chaining) or ECB (Electronic Codebook)
Padding: PKCS7 padding is used by default

Security Best Practices

Always use a strong, random key
Use a unique IV for each encryption
Prefer CBC mode over ECB for better security
Store IV alongside the ciphertext (IV doesn't need to be secret)