What is the difference between PKCS#5 padding and PKCS#7 padding One runtime platform provides an API that supplies PKCS#5 padding for block cipher modes such as ECB and CBC. These modes have been defined for the triple DES, AES and Blowfish block ciphers. The other platform API only provides PKCS#7 padding.

Are PKCS#5 padding and PKCS#7 padding compatible?
The difference between the PKCS#5 and PKCS#7 padding mechanisms is the block size; PKCS#5 padding is defined for 8-byte block sizes, PKCS#7 padding would work for any block size from 1 to 255 bytes.

This is the definition of PKCS#5 padding (6.2) as defined in the RFC:


  The padding string PS shall consist of 8 - (||M|| mod 8) octets all
  having value 8 - (||M|| mod 8).


The RFC that contains the PKCS#7 standard is the same except that it allows block sizes up to 255 bytes in size (10.3 note 2):


  For such algorithms, the method shall be to pad the input at the
  trailing end with k - (l mod k) octets all having value k -
  (l mod k), where l is the length of the input.


So fundamentally PKCS#5 padding is a subset of PKCS#7 padding for 8 byte block sizes. Hence, PKCS#5 padding can not be used for AES. PKCS#5 padding was only defined with RC2/RC5 and (triple) DES operation in mind.

Many cryptographic libraries use an identifier indicating PKCS#5 or PKCS#7 to define the same padding mechanism. The identifier should indicate PKCS#7 if block sizes other than 8 are used within the calculation. Some cryptographic libraries such as the SUN provider in Java indicate PKCS#5 where PKCS#7 should be used - "PKCS5Padding" should have been "PKCS7Padding". This is - with high probability - a legacy from the time that only 8 byte block ciphers such as (triple) DES symmetric cipher were available.

Note that neither PKCS#5 nor PKCS#7 is a standard created to describe a padding mechanism. The padding part is only a small subset of the defined functionality. PKCS#5 is a standard for Password Based Encryption or PBE, and PKCS#7 defines the Cryptographic Message Syntax or CMS. In that sense you could say that ECB and CBC mode can use PKCS#5 or PKCS#7 compatible padding. Later PKCS#5 standards simply refer to successors of the PKCS#7 CMS standard for 16 byte block ciphers such as AES.