OPENSSL-PKCS12(1ossl)

📦 version 3.5.0, in opensuse-leap 16.0

💖 NAME 💖

openssl-pkcs12 — PKCS#12 file command. Yep bestie, this is the OPENSSL-PKCS12(1ossl) manual page, and it's literally all about making and parsing PKCS#12 files. 🎀

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

Ok so here's the whole invocation vibe. Copy it exactly, no freestyling the flags:

openssl pkcs12 [-help] [-passin arg] [-passout arg] [-password arg]
[-twopass] [-in filename|uri] [-out filename] [-nokeys] [-nocerts]
[-noout] [-legacy] [-engine id] [-provider name] [-provider-path path]
[-provparam [name:]key=value] [-propquery propq] [-rand files]
[-writerand file]

PKCS#12 input (parsing) options: [-info] [-nomacver] [-clcerts]
[-cacerts]

[-aes128] [-aes192] [-aes256] [-aria128] [-aria192] [-aria256]
[-camellia128] [-camellia192] [-camellia256] [-des] [-des3] [-idea]
[-noenc] [-nodes]

PKCS#12 output (export) options:

[-export] [-inkey filename|uri] [-certfile filename] [-passcerts arg]
[-chain] [-untrusted filename] [-CAfile file] [-no-CAfile] [-CApath dir]
[-no-CApath] [-CAstore uri] [-no-CAstore] [-name name] [-caname name]
[-CSP name] [-LMK] [-keyex] [-keysig] [-keypbe cipher] [-certpbe cipher]
[-descert] [-macalg digest] [-pbmac1_pbkdf2] [-pbmac1_pbkdf2_md digest]
[-iter count] [-noiter] [-nomaciter] [-maciter] [-macsaltlen] [-nomac]
[-jdktrust usage]

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

Okay so this command is the whole vibe for creating and parsing PKCS#12 files — sometimes called PFX files, iykyk. Several programs use them, including Netscape, MSIE and MS Outlook. 🦋

💅 OPTIONS 💅

Big disclaimer: there are a lot of options, and some meanings flip depending on whether a PKCS#12 file is being created or parsed. By default, a PKCS#12 file is parsed. You create one with -export (see below). The PKCS#12 export encryption and MAC options like -certpbe and -iter, plus many further options like -chain, are relevant only with -export. Conversely, the options about encrypting private keys when outputting PKCS#12 input are relevant only when -export is not given. No cap. 💀

The default encryption algorithm is AES-256-CBC with PBKDF2 for key derivation. Slay. 🔥

When you hit problems loading legacy PKCS#12 files that involve, for example, RC2-40-CBC, try using the -legacy option and, if needed, the -provider-path option. That's the move. 🫶

  • -help — Print out a usage message. So helpful, honestly. ✨
  • -passin arg — The password source for the input, and for encrypting any private keys that are output. For more information about the format of arg see openssl-passphrase-options(1). 🔑
  • -passout arg — The password source for output files. 📤
  • -password arg — With -export, -password is equivalent to -passout; otherwise it is equivalent to -passin. Same energy, different lane. 💅
  • -twopass — Prompt for separate integrity and encryption passwords: most software always assumes these are the same so this option will render such PKCS#12 files unreadable. Cannot be used in combination with the options -password, -passin if importing from PKCS#12, or -passout if exporting. Do not mix. 😭
  • -nokeys — No private keys will be output. 🙅‍♀️
  • -nocerts — No certificates will be output. 🚫
  • -noout — This option inhibits all credentials output, and so the input is just verified. It's giving "look, don't touch." 👑
  • -legacy — Use legacy mode of operation and automatically load the legacy provider. If OpenSSL is not installed system-wide, it is necessary to also use, for example, -provider-path ./providers or to set the environment variable OPENSSL_MODULES to point to the directory where the providers can be found. In legacy mode, the default algorithm for certificate encryption is RC2_CBC or 3DES_CBC depending on whether the RC2 cipher is enabled in the build. The default algorithm for private key encryption is 3DES_CBC. If the legacy option is not specified, then the legacy provider is not loaded and the default encryption algorithm for both certificates and private keys is AES_256_CBC with PBKDF2 for key derivation. 🧚
  • -engine id — See "Engine Options" in openssl(1). This option is deprecated. RIP, but it's in the manual. 💀
  • -provider name — See "Provider Options" in openssl(1), provider(7), and property(7). Provider crew, assemble. 🫶
  • -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). 🔎
  • -rand files — See "Random State Options" in openssl(1) for details. 🎲
  • -writerand file — See "Random State Options" in openssl(1) for details. 🎰

🦋 PKCS#12 input (parsing) options 🦋

  • -in filename|uri — This specifies the input filename or URI. Standard input is used by default. Without the -export option this must be PKCS#12 file to be parsed. For use with the -export option see the "PKCS#12 output (export) options" section. 📥
  • -out filename — The filename to write certificates and private keys to, standard output by default. They are all written in PEM format. 📜
  • -info — Output additional information about the PKCS#12 file structure, algorithms used and iteration counts. Tea. ☕
  • -nomacver — Don't attempt to verify the integrity MAC. 🙈
  • -clcerts — Only output client certificates (not CA certificates). 👩‍💻
  • -cacerts — Only output CA certificates (not client certificates). 👑
  • -aes128, -aes192, -aes256 — Use AES to encrypt private keys before outputting. 🔐
  • -aria128, -aria192, -aria256 — Use ARIA to encrypt private keys before outputting. 🎶
  • -camellia128, -camellia192, -camellia256 — Use Camellia to encrypt private keys before outputting. 🌸
  • -des — Use DES to encrypt private keys before outputting. 🕰️
  • -des3 — Use triple DES to encrypt private keys before outputting. 🧊
  • -idea — Use IDEA to encrypt private keys before outputting. 💡
  • -noenc — Don't encrypt private keys at all. 🙃
  • -nodes — This option is deprecated since OpenSSL 3.0; use -noenc instead. Not me still seeing deprecated flags in the wild. 😭

🎀 PKCS#12 output (export) options 🎀

  • -export — This option specifies that a PKCS#12 file will be created rather than parsed. Main character energy. 👑
  • -out filename — This specifies filename to write the PKCS#12 file to. Standard output is used by default. 📝
  • -in filename|uri — This specifies the input filename or URI. Standard input is used by default. With the -export option this is a file with certificates and a key, or a URI that refers to a key accessed via an engine. The order of credentials in a file doesn't matter but one private key and its corresponding certificate should be present. If additional certificates are present they will also be included in the PKCS#12 output file. 🗂️
  • -inkey filename|uri — The private key input for PKCS12 output. If this option is not specified then the input file (-in argument) must contain a private key. If no engine is used, the argument is taken as a file. If the -engine option is used or the URI has prefix "org.openssl.engine:" then the rest of the URI is taken as key identifier for the given engine. 🔑
  • -certfile filename — An input file with extra certificates to be added to the PKCS#12 output if the -export option is given. Extra certs? We love to see it. ✨
  • -passcerts arg — The password source for certificate input such as -certfile and -untrusted. For more information about the format of arg see openssl-passphrase-options(1). 🫶
  • -chain — If this option is present then the certificate chain of the end entity certificate is built and included in the PKCS#12 output file. The end entity certificate is the first one read from the -in file if no key is given, else the first certificate matching the given key. The standard CA trust store is used for chain building, as well as any untrusted CA certificates given with the -untrusted option. Chain-building slay. ⛓️
  • -untrusted filename — An input file of untrusted certificates that may be used for chain building, which is relevant only when a PKCS#12 file is created with the -export option and the -chain option is given as well. Any certificates that are actually part of the chain are added to the output. 🦋
  • -CAfile file, -no-CAfile, -CApath dir, -no-CApath, -CAstore uri, -no-CAstore — See "Trusted Certificate Options" in openssl-verification-options(1) for details. Trust issues, but make it certificates. 💅
  • -name friendlyname — This specifies the "friendly name" for the certificates and private key. This name is typically displayed in list boxes by software importing the file. Cute. 🎀
  • -caname friendlyname — This specifies the "friendly name" for other certificates. This option may be used multiple times to specify names for all certificates in the order they appear. Netscape ignores friendly names on other certificates whereas MSIE displays them. Not the browser beef. 😭
  • -CSP name — Write name as a Microsoft CSP name. The password source for the input, and for encrypting any private keys that are output. For more information about the format of arg see openssl-passphrase-options(1). Yes, the manual literally has the password-source sentence here too. Keeping it exact, bestie. 🫶
  • -LMK — Add the "Local Key Set" identifier to the attributes. 🔑
  • -keyex, -keysig — Specifies that the private key is to be used for key exchange or just signing. This option is only interpreted by MSIE and similar MS software. Normally "export grade" software will only allow 512 bit RSA keys to be used for encryption purposes but arbitrary length keys for signing. The -keysig option marks the key for signing only. Signing only keys can be used for S/MIME signing, authenticode (ActiveX control signing) and SSL client authentication, however, due to a bug only MSIE 5.0 and later support the use of signing only keys for SSL client authentication. Bug lore, fr. 💀
  • -keypbe alg, -certpbe alg — These options allow the algorithm used to encrypt the private key and certificates to be selected. Any PKCS#5 v1.5 or PKCS#12 PBE algorithm name can be used (see "NOTES" section for more information). If a cipher name (as output by openssl list -cipher-algorithms) is specified then it is used with PKCS#5 v2.0. For interoperability reasons it is advisable to only use PKCS#12 algorithms. Special value "NONE" disables encryption of the private key and certificates. No encryption? Noted. 🙈
  • -descert — Encrypt the certificates using triple DES. By default the private key and the certificates are encrypted using AES-256-CBC unless the -legacy option is used. If -descert is used with the -legacy then both, the private key and the certificates are encrypted using triple DES. 🧚
  • -macalg digest — Specify the MAC digest algorithm. If not included SHA256 will be used. 🧮
  • -pbmac1_pbkdf2 — Use PBMAC1 with PBKDF2 for MAC protection of the PKCS#12 file. 🛡️
  • -pbmac1_pbkdf2_md digest — Specify the PBKDF2 KDF digest algorithm. If not specified, SHA256 will be used. Unless -pbmac1_pbkdf2 is specified, this parameter is ignored. 🫶
  • -iter count — This option specifies the iteration count for the encryption key and MAC. The default value is 2048. 🔁

...to discourage those dictionary attacks where someone just tries a bazillion common passwords, the algorithm that derives keys from passwords can have an iteration count slapped on it — that makes a certain part of the algorithm repeat over and over and slows the whole thing way down. Lowkey the move. The MAC checks file integrity too, but since it normally shares the same password as the keys and certs, it can get attacked as well. 🙈

  • -noiter, -nomaciter — by default both the encryption and MAC iteration counts are set to 2048. These options drop the MAC and encryption iteration counts down to 1. And like — that tanks your file security, so please don't unless you genuinely have to. Most software supports both MAC and encryption iteration counts, but MSIE 4.0 doesn't support MAC iteration counts at all, so it needs -nomaciter. (Yes, MSIE 4.0. We're all thinking it. 💀)
  • -maciter — this one's just here for compatibility with previous versions. It used to be required to get MAC iteration counts, but now they're the default. Iconic legacy behavior, it can stay.
  • -macsaltlen — sets the salt length in bytes for the MAC. Per NIST SP 800-132 the salt length should be at least 16 bytes, but the default is 8 bytes for backwards compatibility. iykyk. 🧂
  • -nomac — don't even attempt to provide the MAC integrity. This one's handy with the FIPS provider, because the PKCS12 MAC needs PKCS12KDF, which is not an approved FIPS algorithm and the FIPS provider literally cannot support it. No cap.
  • -jdktrust — exports the pkcs12 file in a format compatible with Java keystore usage. This option takes a string parameter naming the trust oid to be granted to the certificate it's associated with. Currently only "anyExtendedKeyUsage" is defined. Heads up tho: Java keystores don't accept PKCS12 files that have both trusted certificates and keypairs, so using this option implies setting the -nokeys option. Package deal, bestie. 🎀

🌸 NOTES 🌸

Okay so there are a LOT of options up there, but honestly? Most of them are super rarely used. For PKCS#12 file parsing you only need -in and -out. For PKCS#12 file creation you also use -export and -name. That's the whole vibe check. ✨

If none of -clcerts, -cacerts or -nocerts are present, then all certificates get output in the order they appear in the input PKCS#12 files. And there's no guarantee the first certificate present is the one matching the private key. 😭 Some software that tries to grab a private key and its corresponding certificate will just assume the first cert in the file is the one for the private key — but that might not always be true. Using -clcerts fixes this by only outputting the certificate corresponding to the private key. And if you need the CA certificates, you can output them to a separate file using -nokeys -cacerts to just output CA certificates. Problem solved, periodt. 💅

The -keypbe and -certpbe algorithms let you specify the precise encryption algorithms for private keys and certificates. Normally the defaults are fine, but occasionally software can't handle triple DES encrypted private keys — in that case the option -keypbe PBE-SHA1-RC2-40 reduces the private key encryption to 40 bit RC2. A complete description of all the algorithms lives in openssl-pkcs8(1).

Okay this next bit is real talk. Prior to the 1.1 release, passwords containing non-ASCII characters were encoded in a non-compliant manner, which limited interoperability — first and foremost with Windows. Switching to standard-compliant password encoding poses a problem for accessing old data protected with that broken encoding. For this reason even legacy encodings are attempted when reading the data. If you use PKCS#12 files in a production application, you are advised to convert the data, because the implemented heuristic approach is not MT-safe — its sole goal is to facilitate the data upgrade with this command. 🫶

🦋 EXAMPLES 🦋

Parse a PKCS#12 file and output it to a PEM file:

 openssl pkcs12 -in file.p12 -out file.pem

Output only client certificates to a file:

 openssl pkcs12 -in file.p12 -clcerts -out file.pem

Don't encrypt the private key:

 openssl pkcs12 -in file.p12 -out file.pem -noenc

Print some info about a PKCS#12 file:

 openssl pkcs12 -in file.p12 -info -noout

Print some info about a PKCS#12 file in legacy mode:

 openssl pkcs12 -in file.p12 -info -noout -legacy

Create a PKCS#12 file from a PEM file that may contain a key and certificates:

 openssl pkcs12 -export -in file.pem -out file.p12 -name "My PSE"

Include some extra certificates:

 openssl pkcs12 -export -in file.pem -out file.p12 -name "My PSE" \
  -certfile othercerts.pem

Export a PKCS#12 file with data from a certificate PEM file and from a further PEM file containing a key, with default algorithms as in the legacy provider:

 openssl pkcs12 -export -in cert.pem -inkey key.pem -out file.p12 -legacy

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

openssl(1), openssl-pkcs8(1), ossl_store-file(7)

💜 HISTORY 💜

The -engine option was deprecated in OpenSSL 3.0. The -nodes option was deprecated in OpenSSL 3.0 too — use -noenc instead. Slay responsibly. ✨

Copyright 2000-2025 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>.

And that's a wrap bestie!! 🎀💖 This whole thing is OpenSSL 3.5.0, dated 2026-09-25, and it's the OPENSSL-PKCS12(1ossl) page — go forth and pkcs12 like the main character you are 🦋💅

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