C# Error - Invalid character in a Base-64 string

I am writing a C# assembly to take advantage of the GZip functionality in newer versions of the .NET framework, and I am copying code I have used successfully elsewhere.

The way this works is that an application we are using feeds a stream to the assembly, the assembly reads it, compresses it, then returns the compressed result as a string. That string is then put back into the assembly through a stream to uncompress it (normally it will be stored, but I am simply running a basic test).

However, when I feed the string back to the assembly, it errors out while reading it from a byte array that is read from the application's stream. Here is the code:

    private void ReadStream(IStream stream, out byte[] data)
    {
        using (MemoryStream writer = new MemoryStream())
        {
            IntPtr rwBytes = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(4);
            int _rwBytes = 0;
            data = new byte[0xafc8];

            do
            {
                stream.Read(data, 0xafc8, rwBytes);
                _rwBytes = Marshal.ReadInt32(rwBytes);
                writer.Write(data, 0, _rwBytes);
            }
            while (_rwBytes > 0);
            writer.Close();

            Marshal.FreeHGlobal(rwBytes);
        }
    }

    public string CompressString([In, MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.AsAny开发者_开发知识库)] object appStream)
    {
        byte[] buffer = null;
        ReadStream(appStream as IStream, out buffer);

        MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
        using (GZipStream zip = new GZipStream(ms, CompressionMode.Compress, true))
        {
            zip.Write(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
        }

        ms.Position = 0;
        MemoryStream outStream = new MemoryStream();

        byte[] compressed = new byte[ms.Length];
        ms.Read(compressed, 0, compressed.Length);

        byte[] gzBuffer = new byte[compressed.Length + 4];
        System.Buffer.BlockCopy(compressed, 0, gzBuffer, 4, compressed.Length);
        System.Buffer.BlockCopy(BitConverter.GetBytes(buffer.Length), 0, gzBuffer, 0, 4);
        string str = Convert.ToBase64String(gzBuffer);

        gzBuffer = Convert.FromBase64String(str);
        return str;
    }

    public string DecompressString([In, MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.AsAny)] object appStream)
    {
        byte[] buffer = null;
        ReadStream(appStream as IStream, out buffer);

        string compressedText = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(buffer); 

        byte[] gzBuffer = Convert.FromBase64String(compressedText);

        using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
        {
            int msgLength = BitConverter.ToInt32(gzBuffer, 0);
            ms.Write(gzBuffer, 4, gzBuffer.Length - 4);

            buffer = new byte[msgLength];

            ms.Position = 0;
            using (GZipStream zip = new GZipStream(ms, CompressionMode.Decompress))
            {
                zip.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
            }
        }

        return Encoding.UTF8.GetString(buffer);
    }

The string is returned from the CompressString function as:

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

When it is read back from the stream in the Encoding.UTF8.GetString call, it is:

yK8AAB+LCAAAAAAABADtvQdgHEmWJSYvbcp7f0r1StfgdKEIgGATJNiQQBDswYjN5pLsHWlHIymrKoHKZVZlXWYWQMztnbz33nvvvffee++997o7nU4n99//P1xmZAFs9s5K2smeIYCqyB8/fnwfPyK+ndd5WjRplk6rxarOm6aolmmbN+04TZ/n7cdN2uTU4jwt2vSqqt8241/jR8+Pnh89P3p+9Pzo+dHzo+dHz4+eHz0/en70/Oj50fOj50fPj54fPT96fvT86PnR86PnR8+Pnh89P3p+9Pzo+dHz/67nR9j86PnR86PnR8+Pnh89P3p+9Pzo+dHzo+dHz4+eHz0/en70/Oj50fOj50fPj54fPT96fvT86PnR86PnR8+Pnh89/99/fjSCHz0/en70/Oj50fOj50fPj54fPT96fvT86PnR86PnR8+Pnh89P3p+9Pzo+dHzo+dHz4+eHz0/en70/Oj50fOj5//7z49G8KPnR8+Pnh89P3p+9Pzo+dHzo+dHz4+eHz0/en70/Oj50fOj50fPj54fPT96fvT86PnR86PnR8+Pnh89P3p+9Px///nRCH70/Oj50fOj50fPj54fPT96fvT86PnR86PnR8+Pnh89P3p+9Pzo+dHzo+dHz4+eHz0/en70/Oj50fOj50fPj57/7z8/GsGPnh89P3p+9Pzo+dHzo+dHz4+eHz0/en70/Oj50fP/nef/AYk/UbjIrwAA

These strings are identical. I can even convert it back and forth in the CompressString function with no problem. Any thoughts out there? This is very strange.

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Don't use UTF8, you should use the ascii text encoding instead. When you get the bytes from your string, you'll end up with some extra bytes due to the way UTF strings are encoded.