4 {- join("\n", @autowarntext) -}
10 openssl-pkey - public or private key processing command
16 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_engine_synopsis -}{- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_provider_synopsis -}
19 [B<-in> I<filename>|I<uri>]
20 [B<-inform> B<DER>|B<PEM>|B<P12>|B<ENGINE>]
24 [B<-outform> B<DER>|B<PEM>]
32 [B<-ec_conv_form> I<arg>]
33 [B<-ec_param_enc> I<arg>]
37 This command processes public or private keys. They can be
38 converted between various forms and their components printed.
42 =head2 General options
48 Print out a usage message.
50 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_engine_item -}
52 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_provider_item -}
56 This option checks the consistency of a key pair for both public and private
61 This option checks the correctness of either a public key
62 or the public component of a key pair.
70 =item B<-in> I<filename>|I<uri>
72 This specifies the input to read a key from
73 or standard input if this option is not specified.
74 If the key input is encrypted and B<-passin> is not given
75 a pass phrase will be prompted for.
77 =item B<-inform> B<DER>|B<PEM>|B<P12>|B<ENGINE>
79 The key input format; unspecified by default.
80 See L<openssl-format-options(1)> for details.
82 =item B<-passin> I<arg>
84 The password source for the key input.
86 For more information about the format of B<arg>
87 see L<openssl-passphrase-options(1)>.
91 By default a private key is read from the input.
92 With this option only the public components are read.
100 =item B<-out> I<filename>
102 This specifies the output filename to save the encoded and/or text output of key
103 or standard output if this option is not specified.
104 If any cipher option is set but no B<-passout> is given
105 then a pass phrase will be prompted for.
106 The output filename should B<not> be the same as the input filename.
108 =item B<-outform> B<DER>|B<PEM>
110 The key output format; the default is B<PEM>.
111 See L<openssl-format-options(1)> for details.
115 Encrypt the PEM encoded private key with the supplied cipher. Any algorithm
116 name accepted by EVP_get_cipherbyname() is acceptable such as B<aes128>.
117 Encryption is not supported for DER output.
119 =item B<-passout> I<arg>
121 The password source for the output file.
123 For more information about the format of B<arg>
124 see L<openssl-passphrase-options(1)>.
126 =item B<-traditional>
128 Normally a private key is written using standard format: this is PKCS#8 form
129 with the appropriate encryption algorithm (if any). If the B<-traditional>
130 option is specified then the older "traditional" format is used instead.
134 By default the encoded private and public key is output;
135 this option restricts the encoded output to the public components.
136 This option is automatically set if the input is a public key.
140 Do not output the key in encoded form.
144 Output the various key components in plain text
145 (possibly in addition to the PEM encoded form).
146 This cannot be combined with encoded output in DER format.
150 Output in text form only the public key components (also for private keys).
151 This cannot be combined with encoded output in DER format.
153 =item B<-ec_conv_form> I<arg>
155 This option only applies to elliptic-curve based keys.
157 This specifies how the points on the elliptic curve are converted
158 into octet strings. Possible values are: B<compressed> (the default
159 value), B<uncompressed> and B<hybrid>. For more information regarding
160 the point conversion forms please read the X9.62 standard.
161 B<Note> Due to patent issues the B<compressed> option is disabled
162 by default for binary curves and can be enabled by defining
163 the preprocessor macro B<OPENSSL_EC_BIN_PT_COMP> at compile time.
165 =item B<-ec_param_enc> I<arg>
167 This option only applies to elliptic curve based public and private keys.
169 This specifies how the elliptic curve parameters are encoded.
170 Possible value are: B<named_curve>, i.e. the ec parameters are
171 specified by an OID, or B<explicit> where the ec parameters are
172 explicitly given (see RFC 3279 for the definition of the
173 EC parameters structures). The default value is B<named_curve>.
174 B<Note> the B<implicitlyCA> alternative, as specified in RFC 3279,
175 is currently not implemented in OpenSSL.
181 To remove the pass phrase on a private key:
183 openssl pkey -in key.pem -out keyout.pem
185 To encrypt a private key using triple DES:
187 openssl pkey -in key.pem -des3 -out keyout.pem
189 To convert a private key from PEM to DER format:
191 openssl pkey -in key.pem -outform DER -out keyout.der
193 To print out the components of a private key to standard output:
195 openssl pkey -in key.pem -text -noout
197 To print out the public components of a private key to standard output:
199 openssl pkey -in key.pem -text_pub -noout
201 To just output the public part of a private key:
203 openssl pkey -in key.pem -pubout -out pubkey.pem
205 To change the EC parameters encoding to B<explicit>:
207 openssl pkey -in key.pem -ec_param_enc explicit -out keyout.pem
209 To change the EC point conversion form to B<compressed>:
211 openssl pkey -in key.pem -ec_conv_form compressed -out keyout.pem
216 L<openssl-genpkey(1)>,
220 L<openssl-genrsa(1)>,
225 The B<-engine> option was deprecated in OpenSSL 3.0.
229 Copyright 2006-2021 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
231 Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use
232 this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy
233 in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
234 L<https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.