Simply put, encoding is a process where if an individual is aware of the process used, it is possible for them to reverse the encoding. An example would be if I gave you a message and said it was Base64-encoded; you would be able to simply turn it back into clear-text. Encryption, on the other hand, is where if I told you that it was AES-CBC-SHA-1(256) encrypted, you wouldn't be able to reverse it without a great deal of other information (dependent on the method). Even methods such as RC4, which are broken, are non-reversible without knowledge of the key or clear-text. We will cover these methods later.
We're going to use encoding as a layer of obfuscation rather than a secure method, as the aim of this book is to make insecure systems, not super secure systems. Base64 encoding is relatively straightforward to perform with the following command:
echo <text to encode> | base64 -e
This works by default in Kali and will Base64 encode whatever...