openssl-pkey - public or private key processing command
openssl pkey [
-help] [
-engine id] [
-provider name] [
-provider-path path] [
-propquery propq] [
-check] [
-pubcheck] [
-in filename|
uri] [
-inform
DER|
PEM|
P12|
ENGINE] [
-passin arg] [
-pubin] [
-out filename] [
-outform
DER|
PEM] [
-cipher] [
-passout arg] [
-traditional] [
-pubout] [
-noout] [
-text] [
-text_pub] [
-ec_conv_form
arg] [
-ec_param_enc arg]
This command processes public or private keys. They can be converted between
various forms and their components printed.
- -help
- Print out a usage message.
-
-engine id
- See "Engine Options" in openssl(1). This
option is deprecated.
-
-provider name
-
-provider-path path
-
-propquery propq
- See "Provider Options" in openssl(1),
provider(7), and property(7).
- -check
- This option checks the consistency of a key pair for both
public and private components.
- -pubcheck
- This option checks the correctness of either a public key
or the public component of a key pair.
-
-in filename|uri
- This specifies the input to read a key from or standard
input if this option is not specified. If the key input is encrypted and
-passin is not given a pass phrase will be prompted for.
-
-inform
DER|PEM|P12|ENGINE
- The key input format; unspecified by default. See
openssl-format-options(1) for details.
-
-passin arg
- The password source for the key input.
For more information about the format of arg see
openssl-passphrase-options(1).
- -pubin
- By default a private key is read from the input. With this
option only the public components are read.
-
-out filename
- This specifies the output filename to save the encoded
and/or text output of key or standard output if this option is not
specified. If any cipher option is set but no -passout is given
then a pass phrase will be prompted for. The output filename should
not be the same as the input filename.
-
-outform DER|PEM
- The key output format; the default is PEM. See
openssl-format-options(1) for details.
-
-cipher
- Encrypt the PEM encoded private key with the supplied
cipher. Any algorithm name accepted by EVP_get_cipherbyname() is
acceptable such as aes128. Encryption is not supported for DER
output.
-
-passout arg
- The password source for the output file.
For more information about the format of arg see
openssl-passphrase-options(1).
- -traditional
- Normally a private key is written using standard format:
this is PKCS#8 form with the appropriate encryption algorithm (if any). If
the -traditional option is specified then the older
"traditional" format is used instead.
- -pubout
- By default the private and public key is output; this
option restricts the output to the public components. This option is
automatically set if the input is a public key.
When combined with -text, this is equivalent to
-text_pub.
- -noout
- Do not output the key in encoded form.
- -text
- Output the various key components in plain text (possibly
in addition to the PEM encoded form). This cannot be combined with encoded
output in DER format.
- -text_pub
- Output in text form only the public key components (also
for private keys). This cannot be combined with encoded output in DER
format.
-
-ec_conv_form arg
- This option only applies to elliptic-curve based keys.
This specifies how the points on the elliptic curve are converted into octet
strings. Possible values are: compressed (the default value),
uncompressed and hybrid. For more information regarding the
point conversion forms please read the X9.62 standard. Note Due to
patent issues the compressed option is disabled by default for
binary curves and can be enabled by defining the preprocessor macro
OPENSSL_EC_BIN_PT_COMP at compile time.
-
-ec_param_enc arg
- This option only applies to elliptic curve based public and
private keys.
This specifies how the elliptic curve parameters are encoded. Possible value
are: named_curve, i.e. the ec parameters are specified by an OID,
or explicit where the ec parameters are explicitly given (see RFC
3279 for the definition of the EC parameters structures). The default
value is named_curve. Note the implicitlyCA
alternative, as specified in RFC 3279, is currently not implemented in
OpenSSL.
To remove the pass phrase on a private key:
openssl pkey -in key.pem -out keyout.pem
To encrypt a private key using triple DES:
openssl pkey -in key.pem -des3 -out keyout.pem
To convert a private key from PEM to DER format:
openssl pkey -in key.pem -outform DER -out keyout.der
To print out the components of a private key to standard output:
openssl pkey -in key.pem -text -noout
To print out the public components of a private key to standard output:
openssl pkey -in key.pem -text_pub -noout
To just output the public part of a private key:
openssl pkey -in key.pem -pubout -out pubkey.pem
To change the EC parameters encoding to
explicit:
openssl pkey -in key.pem -ec_param_enc explicit -out keyout.pem
To change the EC point conversion form to
compressed:
openssl pkey -in key.pem -ec_conv_form compressed -out keyout.pem
openssl(1),
openssl-genpkey(1),
openssl-rsa(1),
openssl-pkcs8(1),
openssl-dsa(1),
openssl-genrsa(1),
openssl-gendsa(1)
The
-engine option was deprecated in OpenSSL 3.0.
Copyright 2006-2021 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use
this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy in the
file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
<
https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.