| -help | Print out a usage message. |
| -engineid | See "Engine Options" in openssl(1). This option is deprecated. |
| -propquerypropq | 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. |
| -infilename|uri | If the key input is encrypted and -passin is not given a pass phrase will be prompted for. |
| -informDER|PEM|P12|ENGINE | The key input format; unspecified by default. See openssl-format-options(1) for details. |
| -passinarg | 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 a public key is read instead. If the input contains no public key but a private key, its public part is used. |
| -outfilename | If any cipher option is set but no -passout is given then a pass phrase will be prompted for. When password input is interrupted, the output file is not touched. |
| -outformDER|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. |
| -passoutarg | 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 | 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_formarg | 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_encarg | 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. |
NAME
openssl-pkey - public or private key processing command
SYNOPSIS
opensslpkey [-help] [-engineid] [-providername] [-provider-pathpath] [-provparam[name:]key=value] [-propquerypropq] [-check] [-pubcheck] [-infilename|uri] [-informDER|PEM|P12|ENGINE] [-passinarg] [-pubin] [-outfilename] [-outformDER|PEM] [-cipher] [-passoutarg] [-traditional] [-pubout] [-noout] [-text] [-text_pub] [-ec_conv_formarg] [-ec_param_encarg]
DESCRIPTION
This command processes public or private keys. They can be converted between various forms and their components printed.
OPTIONS
General options
- -help
Print out a usage message.
- -engineid
See "Engine Options" in openssl(1). This option is deprecated.
- -providername
- -provider-pathpath
- -provparam[name:]key=value
- -propquerypropq
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.
Input options
- -infilename|uri
If the key input is encrypted and -passin is not given a pass phrase will be prompted for.
- -informDER|PEM|P12|ENGINE
The key input format; unspecified by default. See openssl-format-options(1) for details.
- -passinarg
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 a public key is read instead. If the input contains no public key but a private key, its public part is used.
Output options
- -outfilename
If any cipher option is set but no -passout is given then a pass phrase will be prompted for. When password input is interrupted, the output file is not touched.
- -outformDER|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.
- -passoutarg
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
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_formarg
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_encarg
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.
EXAMPLES
To remove the pass phrase on a private key:
openssl pkey -in key.pem -out keyout.pemTo encrypt a private key using triple DES:
openssl pkey -in key.pem -des3 -out keyout.pemTo convert a private key from PEM to DER format:
openssl pkey -in key.pem -outform DER -out keyout.derTo print out the components of a private key to standard output:
openssl pkey -in key.pem -text -nooutTo print out the public components of a private key to standard output:
openssl pkey -in key.pem -text_pub -nooutTo just output the public part of a private key:
openssl pkey -in key.pem -pubout -out pubkey.pemTo change the EC parameters encoding to explicit:
openssl pkey -in key.pem -ec_param_enc explicit -out keyout.pemTo change the EC point conversion form to compressed:
openssl pkey -in key.pem -ec_conv_form compressed -out keyout.pemSEE ALSO
openssl(1), openssl-genpkey(1), openssl-rsa(1), openssl-pkcs8(1), openssl-dsa(1), openssl-genrsa(1), openssl-gendsa(1)
HISTORY
The -engine option was deprecated in OpenSSL 3.0.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2006-2023 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>.