OPENSSL-PASSPHRASE-OPTIONS(1ossl)

🌸 NAME 🌸

openssl-passphrase-options — the pass phrase options, bestie. Like, the whole "where do I even get a password from" situation, spelled out 💅

So this is part of the OpenSSL manual fam, and it's literally just about how you hand a pass phrase to an OpenSSL command. Cute, short, important. Let's go 🎀

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

openssl command [ options ... ] [ parameters ... ]

Yeah that's it. That's the whole vibe. You're running some openssl command with options and parameters, and somewhere in there a pass phrase option is lurking 🦋

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

Okay so real talk: several OpenSSL commands accept password arguments, and they're typically -passin and -passout for the input password and the output password respectively. Iconic duo. Main character energy 👑

Both of these options take a single argument, and the format of that argument is what's described below. So like, you don't get to be creative with it — the format is the format, periodt.

And here's the thing: if no password argument is given and a password is required, the user gets prompted to enter one. It'll typically be read from the current terminal with echoing turned off — so nobody sees you typing it. No cap, that's the security feature working as intended 🔥

Ngl — character encoding may be relevant here, so go peek at passphrase-encoding(7) if you're doing anything fancy with non-ASCII. Fr fr, it matters 💀

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

🎀 Pass Phrase Option Arguments

Here's the tea 🍓 — pass phrase arguments can be formatted as follows:

• pass:password — the actual password is password. Like, literally just vibes and plaintext. ⚠️ Because the password is visible to utilities (like ps under Unix), this form should only be used where security is not important. So, y'know... maybe not for your actual secrets? 🙈
• env:var — obtains the password from the environment variable var. Slightly less unhinged than pass:, but heads up: since the environment of other processes is visible on certain platforms (e.g. ps under certain Unix OSes), this option should be used with caution. Not me warning you twice 💀
• file:pathname — reads the password from the specified file pathname, which can be a regular file, a device, or a named pipe. Only the first line, up to the newline character, is read from the stream. ✨

And here's a lowkey iconic detail: if the same pathname argument is supplied to both -passin and -passout, then the first line will be used for the input password, and the next line will be used for the output password. One file, two passwords, zero drama 🫶

• fd:number — reads the password from the file descriptor number. This can be useful for sending data via a pipe, for example. The same line handling as described for file: applies to passwords read from file descriptors. 🦋

⚠️ Watch out: fd: is not supported on Windows. Just so you know 💀

• stdin — reads the password from standard input. The same line handling as described for file: applies to passwords read from standard input. Simple, clean, slay 🌈

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👑 COPYRIGHT 👑

Copyright 2000-2024 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>.

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And that's the whole page, bestie — go forth and pass your phrases responsibly 💜

Sign-off szn: this lil beauty is from OpenSSL version 3.5.6, dated 2026-04-07, and the page is OPENSSL-PASSPHRASE-OPTIONS(1ossl). Byeee 🧚‍♀️