OPENSSL-PKEY(1ossl)

💖 NAME 💖

okay so this is openssl-pkey — the OPENSSL-PKEY(1ossl) page from the OpenSSL manual set — and it is literally the public or private key processing command. Bestie, it processes public or private keys, converts them between various forms, and prints their components. Main character key energy only 💅.

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

openssl pkey [-help] [-engine id] [-provider name] [-provider-path path]
[-provparam [name:]key=value] [-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]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

This command processes public or private keys. They can be converted between various forms, and their components can be printed. no cap, it's giving key-processing icon behavior 💖.

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

🌸 General options 🌸

• -help — Print out a usage message. tiny helper moment 🫶
• -engine id — See "Engine Options" in openssl(1). This option is deprecated. 🚨
• -provider name — See "Provider Options" in openssl(1), provider(7), and property(7). provider bestie behavior ✨
• -provider-path path — See "Provider Options" in openssl(1), provider(7), and property(7).
• -provparam [name:]key=value — See "Provider Options" in openssl(1), provider(7), and property(7).
• -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. vibe check but for keys 💅
• -pubcheck — This option checks the correctness of either a public key or the public component of a key pair.

🍓 Input options 🍓

• -in filename|uri — This specifies the input file 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 a public key is read instead. If the input contains no public key but a private key, its public part is used. slay, public-only era 🌈

🧚 Output options 🧚

• -out filename — This specifies the output file to save the encoded and/or text output of the key, or standard output if this option is not specified. The output filename can be the same as the input filename, which leads to replacing the file contents. Note that file I/O is not atomic. The output file is truncated and then written. 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. 🫶
• -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. vintage key format moment 🎀
• -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. we respect the no-out boundary ✨
• -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 values 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 🔥

okay these examples are genuinely the moment, bestie:

• 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

🌈 SEE 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. periodt.

👑 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>.

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This iconic page is from OpenSSL 3.5.6, dated 2026-04-07, and it's the OPENSSL-PKEY(1ossl) manual page. Slay and happy key processing 💅✨