Base64 encoding and POST

If I base64_encode() some data, POST it, and base64_decode in the POSTed-to
script, I get some peculiar characters at the beginning of the decoded
String.

Has anyone seen this before and have a workaround? Searching on Google has
only furthered my confusion on this. Thanks, Ike

What are those characters? Are they same each time, or are they
contents related (depend on coded/decoded content)?
Do you use "magic_quotes_gpc" and / or "magic_quotes_sybase"
and / or "magic_quotes_runtime"?
They affect the way the retrieved data is stored in $_POST
and $_REQUEST (and $vars if "register_globals" is on).

In case of magic quotes you may solve the problem with:

if (get_magic_quotes_gpc())
$data = stripslashes($_POST['data']);
else
$data = $_POST['data'];
$data = base64_decode( $data );

Hilarion