openssl-pkey

OPENSSL-PKEY(1SSL)                  OpenSSL                 OPENSSL-PKEY(1SSL)

NAME
       openssl-pkey - public or private key processing command

SYNOPSIS
       openssl pkey [-help] [-engine id] [-provider name] [-provider-path
       path] [-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 printed.

OPTIONS
   General options
       -help
           Print out a usage message.

       -engine id
           See "Engine Options" in openssl(1).  This option is deprecated.

       -provider name
       -provider-path path
       -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.

       -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 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
           only the public components are read.

   Output options
       -out filename
           This specifies the output filename to save the encoded and/or text
           output of key or standard output if this option is not specified.
           If any cipher option is set but no -passout is given then a pass
           phrase will be prompted for.  The output filename should not be the
           same as the input filename.

       -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.

       -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.

       -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 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.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.

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright 2006-2021 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>.

3.0.2                             2025-02-05                OPENSSL-PKEY(1SSL)