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]
[-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 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
-provparam [name:]key=value
-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 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.
Output options
-out filename
This specifies the output file to save the encoded and/or text
output of 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.
-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 2006-2023 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>.
3.5.4 2025-09-30 OPENSSL-PKEY(1SSL)
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