How to convert a DER file to a PEM file? - ssl

I have a public key DER file and i wish to concert it to a PEM file but getting errors and Google isn't helping
Any ideas please?
alan#WW031779:/mnt/c/Users/alan/Downloads/RsaCtfTool$ openssl x509 -inform der -in pubkey.der -out certificate.pem
unable to load certificate
140024363618944:error:0D0680A8:asn1 encoding routines:asn1_check_tlen:wrong tag:../crypto/asn1/tasn_dec.c:1149:
140024363618944:error:0D07803A:asn1 encoding routines:asn1_item_embed_d2i:nested asn1 error:../crypto/asn1/tasn_dec.c:309:Type=X509
alan#WW031779:/mnt/c/Users/alan/Downloads/RsaCtfTool$ openssl x509 -in pubkey.der -inform DER -out private.pem -outform PEM
unable to load certificate
140228465136256:error:0D0680A8:asn1 encoding routines:asn1_check_tlen:wrong tag:../crypto/asn1/tasn_dec.c:1149:
140228465136256:error:0D07803A:asn1 encoding routines:asn1_item_embed_d2i:nested asn1 error:../crypto/asn1/tasn_dec.c:309:Type=X509
Even something simple like
openssl x509 -in pubkey.der -out cert.pem
Gives me
unable to load certificate
139881925907072:error:0909006C:PEM routines:get_name:no start line:../crypto/pem/pem_lib.c:745:Expecting: TRUSTED CERTIFICATE
I tried to use pkey as per a suggestion below but get
139641461281408:error:0D0680A8:asn1 encoding routines:asn1_check_tlen:wrong tag:../crypto/asn1/tasn_dec.c:1149:
139641461281408:error:0D08303A:asn1 encoding routines:asn1_template_noexp_d2i:nested asn1 error:../crypto/asn1/tasn_dec.c:572:
139641461281408:error:0D0680A8:asn1 encoding routines:asn1_check_tlen:wrong tag:../crypto/asn1/tasn_dec.c:1149:
139641461281408:error:0D07803A:asn1 encoding routines:asn1_item_embed_d2i:nested asn1 error:../crypto/asn1/tasn_dec.c:309:Type=RSAPrivateKey
139641461281408:error:04093004:rsa routines:old_rsa_priv_decode:RSA lib:../crypto/rsa/rsa_ameth.c:133:
139641461281408:error:0D0680A8:asn1 encoding routines:asn1_check_tlen:wrong tag:../crypto/asn1/tasn_dec.c:1149:
139641461281408:error:0D07803A:asn1 encoding routines:asn1_item_embed_d2i:nested asn1 error:../crypto/asn1/tasn_dec.c:309:Type=PKCS8_PRIV_KEY_INFO
Also rsa
alan#WW031779:/mnt/c/Users/alan/Downloads/RsaCtfTool$ openssl rsa -inform der -in pubkey.der -out certificate.pem
unable to load Private Key
140404504073536:error:0D0680A8:asn1 encoding routines:asn1_check_tlen:wrong tag:../crypto/asn1/tasn_dec.c:1149:
140404504073536:error:0D08303A:asn1 encoding routines:asn1_template_noexp_d2i:nested asn1 error:../crypto/asn1/tasn_dec.c:572:
140404504073536:error:0D0680A8:asn1 encoding routines:asn1_check_tlen:wrong tag:../crypto/asn1/tasn_dec.c:1149:
140404504073536:error:0D07803A:asn1 encoding routines:asn1_item_embed_d2i:nested asn1 error:../crypto/asn1/tasn_dec.c:309:Type=RSAPrivateKey
140404504073536:error:04093004:rsa routines:old_rsa_priv_decode:RSA lib:../crypto/rsa/rsa_ameth.c:133:
140404504073536:error:0D0680A8:asn1 encoding routines:asn1_check_tlen:wrong tag:../crypto/asn1/tasn_dec.c:1149:
140404504073536:error:0D07803A:asn1 encoding routines:asn1_item_embed_d2i:nested asn1 error:../crypto/asn1/tasn_dec.c:309:Type=PKCS8_PRIV_KEY_INFO
alan#WW031779:/mnt/c/Users/alan/Downloads/RsaCtfTool$ openssl rsa -in pubkey.der -out cert.pem
unable to load Private Key
140227099890304:error:0909006C:PEM routines:get_name:no start line:../crypto/pem/pem_lib.c:745:Expecting: ANY PRIVATE KEY
alan#WW031779:/mnt/c/Users/alan/Downloads/RsaCtfTool$ openssl rsa -in pubkey.der -inform DER -out private.pem -outform PEM
unable to load Private Key
140152776102528:error:0D0680A8:asn1 encoding routines:asn1_check_tlen:wrong tag:../crypto/asn1/tasn_dec.c:1149:
140152776102528:error:0D08303A:asn1 encoding routines:asn1_template_noexp_d2i:nested asn1 error:../crypto/asn1/tasn_dec.c:572:
140152776102528:error:0D0680A8:asn1 encoding routines:asn1_check_tlen:wrong tag:../crypto/asn1/tasn_dec.c:1149:
140152776102528:error:0D07803A:asn1 encoding routines:asn1_item_embed_d2i:nested asn1 error:../crypto/asn1/tasn_dec.c:309:Type=RSAPrivateKey
140152776102528:error:04093004:rsa routines:old_rsa_priv_decode:RSA lib:../crypto/rsa/rsa_ameth.c:133:
140152776102528:error:0D0680A8:asn1 encoding routines:asn1_check_tlen:wrong tag:../crypto/asn1/tasn_dec.c:1149:
140152776102528:error:0D07803A:asn1 encoding routines:asn1_item_embed_d2i:nested asn1 error:../crypto/asn1/tasn_dec.c:309:Type=PKCS8_PRIV_KEY_INFO
Content of my DER file is here https://ghostbin.com/nrsmD and a snippet below

After several attempts to convert the DER into PEM the OP provided the DER file in question. Base64 encoded it looks like this:
BEGINPUBLICKEYMIIB...AwENDPUBLICKEY
The BEGINPUBLICKEY at the beginning and ENDPUBLICKEY look very fishy. Obviously someone took the PEM formatted public key and simply converted it from base64, then claimed that this is DER formatted. Only it is not, since the leading -----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY----- and final -----END PUBLIC KEY----- are not supposed to be included when decoding from base64, only the part between these should be decoded to get to the DER.
After repairing the base64 encoding by removing the wrong BEGINPUBLICKEY and ENDPUBLICKEY and then properly padding the remaining base64 with == decoding successfully lead to a proper DER file.
$ openssl base64 -d -in pubkey.b64 -out pubkey.der
This then could be transformed to proper PEM
$ openssl pkey -pubin -inform der -in pubkey.der -out pubkey.pem

Related

Private Key doesn't Match Certificate

I'm having some weird issues with generating CSRs and certificates from them which I don't fully understand.
Here's what I've done:
Generate private key and CSR (done on Ubuntu on WSL if that's of any significance)
openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout PRIVATEKEY.key -out MYCSR.csr
Uploaded that to CA and got back a certificate beginning with -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- which would indicate a PEM-encoded certificate, right?
Tried combining all of this into a PFX for ease of use
openssl pkcs12 -export -out CERTIFICATE.pfx -inkey PRIVATEKEY.key -in CERTIFICATE.cer
It then asks for the private key and then throws the error No certificate matches private key
Some people suggested reencoding the certificate from DER to PEM, but that just throws an error indicating the certificate is already X509
sudo openssl x509 -inform DER -outform PEM -in CERTIFICATE.cer -out CERTIFICATE.pem
unable to load certificate
140390322082240:error:0D0680A8:asn1 encoding routines:asn1_check_tlen:wrong tag:../crypto/asn1/tasn_dec.c:1130:
140390322082240:error:0D07803A:asn1 encoding routines:asn1_item_embed_d2i:nested asn1 error:../crypto/asn1/tasn_dec.c:290:Type=X509
The following command generates quite sensible output, so the certificate seems to be alright to some extent
openssl x509 -in CERTIFICATE.cer -text -noout
The CA is Telia if this is of any use to anybody. I have had some issues in the past with them, for example Digicert's Certificate Utility doesn't recognize their certificates as valid for some reason (but that might of course be cause by me using the wrong file extension or something).
This issue was due to the renewal process in the Telia user interface, it allows you to upload a new CSR during renewal, but it actually ignores that and uses the old CSR without telling you.

Apache SSL Converting itermediateCA.cer to crt with openssl

Try to convert IntermidiateCA.cer to crt formmat for Apache but I couldn't. I use the following command below:
openssl x509 -inform DER -in IntermediateCA.cer -out IntermediateCA.crt
This the error I got below
unable to load certificate
4276141236:error:0D0680A8:asn1 encoding routines:ASN1_CHECK_TLEN:wrong
tag:tasn_dec.c:1198:
4276141236:error:0D07803A:asn1 encoding routines:ASN1_ITEM_EX_D2I:nested
asn1 error:tasn_dec.c:372:Type=X509
Kindly note the server is solaris 5.10
There are two common certificate encoding types. If you can read the "----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----" then it's PEM encoded. If not, DER (binary) encoded. Trying to convert with the openssl x509 command specifying the wrong encoding will produce the error you got.
If certificate file is DER encoded (binary)
openssl x509 -inform DER -in certificate.cer -out certificate.crt
If certificate is PEM encoded (human readable)
openssl x509 -inform PEM -in certificate.cer -out certificate.crt

ssl : Unable to load certificate

I have 2 files - CSR.csr and newkey.key, both seem to be in PEM format as follows -
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----
MIID....
-----END CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----
-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
MI...
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
When I'm trying to read the CSR.csr file, I get the following error :
$ openssl x509 -in CSR.csr -text -noout
unable to load certificate
140518720210760:error:0906D06C:PEM routines:PEM_read_bio:no start line:pem_lib.c:698:Expecting: TRUSTED CERTIFICATE
I read that we get this error when the input file is in DER format, so I tried the following -
$ openssl x509 -inform DER -in CSR.csr -text -noout
but now I get the error -
unable to load certificate
140519053051720:error:0D0680A8:asn1 encoding routines:ASN1_CHECK_TLEN:wrong tag:tasn_dec.c:1320:
140519053051720:error:0D07803A:asn1 encoding routines:ASN1_ITEM_EX_D2I:nested asn1 error:tasn_dec.c:382:Type=X509
And it seems this error occurs when the input file is already in PEM format and one tries to read it in DER format.
Really confused how to go about it as I'm new to SSL. Please help!
In my case I was trying to read my cer file and was receiving the error stated above
openssl x509 -in CSR.csr -text -noout
unable to load certificate
140518720210760:error:0906D06C:PEM routines:PEM_read_bio:no start line:pem_lib.c:698:Expecting: TRUSTED CERTIFICATE
I had to convert it to a crt file using openssl.
openssl x509 -inform DER -in <certname>.cer -out <certname>.crt
openssl x509 -in <certname>.crt -text
Here's the doc i used. I was able to read it using openssl after that
The problem is not PEM vs. DER but that you are using a certificate request in a place where a certificate is expected. This is clearly shown by the PEM header -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----.
To show the content of a certificate request use
openssl req -in CSR.csr -text
To show the content of a certificate use
openssl x509 -in CERT.crt -text
This ERROR also happens on certificates that are not "certificate request" emmited to be signed by a CA (non-CSR certificate) but which are x509 regular certificates from Windows PKI in ".cer" format
In this case, following "Norbert" answer is the good way to solve the problem, converting the certificate in ".crt'
After the file is able to be dumped using:
openssl x509 -in YOURCERT.crt -noout -text
or
openssl x509 -in YOURCERT.crt -text

Good use of certificates to sign a PDF

I'm trying to sign a PDF in a PHP script with a certificate. Until now, I executed my test with a self-signed .crt file, generated with the command line :
openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365000 -newkey rsa:1024 \
-keyout tcpdf.crt -out tcpdf.crt
(yes, i'm using tcpdf). It works fine.
But know, my company gave me real certificates (from tbs-certificats), and I'm a bit disappointed: I've a .cer, a .pem and a .p7b file...
I tried to use each of them in my script, but I've the error
Warning: openssl_pkcs7_sign(): error getting private key
The code I use with a self-signed certificate :
// set certificate file
$certificate = 'file://data/cert/tcpdf.crt';
// set document signature
$pdf->setSignature($certificate, $certificate);
May I change something ? I'm not very familiar with the crypto world...
We'll, first things first, you have to point your script to an existing file. In this case, the .cer file would contain the certificate, so try that instead of "/path/file.CRT".
Now the file extension vs. how the certificate is encoded is kinda unrelated I'm afraid, even if the names are inducing some confusion, see this reference.
I have no idea whether tcpdf supports both pem and der encoded files, because of the lack of documentation. They probably do, but just in case, here's how to work around it. Test commands will give you an "unable to load certificate" error if you assume the wrong encoding.
testing for pem encoded files : openssl x509 -in cert.cer -text -noout
testing for der encoded files : openssl x509 -in certificate.der -inform der -text -noout
conversion from PEM to DER openssl x509 -in cert.cer -outform der -out cert.der
conversion from DER to PEM openssl x509 -in cert.cer -inform der -outform pem -out cert.pem

Convert .pem to .crt and .key

Can anyone tell me the correct way/command to extract/convert the certificate .crt and private key .key files from a .pem file? I just read they are interchangable, but not how.
I was able to convert pem to crt using this:
openssl x509 -outform der -in your-cert.pem -out your-cert.crt
Converting Using OpenSSL
These commands allow you to convert certificates and keys to different formats to make them compatible with specific types of servers or software.
Convert a DER file (.crt .cer .der) to PEM
openssl x509 -inform der -in certificate.cer -out certificate.pem
Convert a PEM file to DER
openssl x509 -outform der -in certificate.pem -out certificate.der
Convert a PKCS#12 file (.pfx .p12) containing a private key and certificates to PEM
openssl pkcs12 -in keyStore.pfx -out keyStore.pem -nodes
You can add -nocerts to only output the private key or add -nokeys to only output the certificates.
Convert a PEM certificate file and a private key to PKCS#12 (.pfx .p12)
openssl pkcs12 -export -out certificate.pfx -inkey privateKey.key -in certificate.crt -certfile CACert.crt
Convert PEM to CRT (.CRT file)
openssl x509 -outform der -in certificate.pem -out certificate.crt
OpenSSL Convert PEM
Convert PEM to DER
openssl x509 -outform der -in certificate.pem -out certificate.der
Convert PEM to P7B
openssl crl2pkcs7 -nocrl -certfile certificate.cer -out certificate.p7b -certfile CACert.cer
Convert PEM to PFX
openssl pkcs12 -export -out certificate.pfx -inkey privateKey.key -in certificate.crt -certfile CACert.crt
OpenSSL Convert DER
Convert DER to PEM
openssl x509 -inform der -in certificate.cer -out certificate.pem
OpenSSL Convert P7B
Convert P7B to PEM
openssl pkcs7 -print_certs -in certificate.p7b -out certificate.cer
Convert P7B to PFX
openssl pkcs7 -print_certs -in certificate.p7b -out certificate.cer
openssl pkcs12 -export -in certificate.cer -inkey privateKey.key -out certificate.pfx -certfile CACert.cer
OpenSSL Convert PFX
Convert PFX to PEM
openssl pkcs12 -in certificate.pfx -out certificate.cer -nodes
Generate rsa keys by OpenSSL
Using OpenSSL on the command line you’d first need to generate a public and private key, you should password protect this file using the -passout argument, there are many different forms that this argument can take so consult the OpenSSL documentation about that.
openssl genrsa -out private.pem 1024
This creates a key file called private.pem that uses 1024 bits. This file actually have both the private and public keys, so you should extract the public one from this file:
openssl rsa -in private.pem -out public.pem -outform PEM -pubout
or
openssl rsa -in private.pem -pubout > public.pem
or
openssl rsa -in private.pem -pubout -out public.pem
You’ll now have public.pem containing just your public key, you can freely share this with 3rd parties.
You can test it all by just encrypting something yourself using your public key and then decrypting using your private key, first we need a bit of data to encrypt:
Example file :
echo 'too many secrets' > file.txt
You now have some data in file.txt, lets encrypt it using OpenSSL and
the public key:
openssl rsautl -encrypt -inkey public.pem -pubin -in file.txt -out file.ssl
This creates an encrypted version of file.txt calling it file.ssl, if
you look at this file it’s just binary junk, nothing very useful to
anyone. Now you can unencrypt it using the private key:
openssl rsautl -decrypt -inkey private.pem -in file.ssl -out decrypted.txt
You will now have an unencrypted file in decrypted.txt:
cat decrypted.txt
|output -> too many secrets
RSA TOOLS Options in OpenSSL
NAME
rsa - RSA key processing tool
SYNOPSIS
openssl rsa [-help] [-inform PEM|NET|DER] [-outform PEM|NET|DER] [-in filename] [-passin arg] [-out filename] [-passout arg] [-aes128] [-aes192] [-aes256] [-camellia128] [-camellia192] [-camellia256] [-des] [-des3] [-idea] [-text] [-noout] [-modulus] [-check] [-pubin] [-pubout] [-RSAPublicKey_in] [-RSAPublicKey_out] [-engine id]
DESCRIPTION
The rsa command processes RSA keys. They can be converted between various forms and their components printed out. Note this command uses the traditional SSLeay compatible format for private key encryption: newer applications should use the more secure PKCS#8 format using the pkcs8 utility.
COMMAND OPTIONS
-help
Print out a usage message.
-inform DER|NET|PEM
This specifies the input format. The DER option uses an ASN1 DER encoded form compatible with the PKCS#1 RSAPrivateKey or SubjectPublicKeyInfo format. The PEM form is the default format: it consists of the DER format base64 encoded with additional header and footer lines. On input PKCS#8 format private keys are also accepted. The NET form is a format is described in the NOTES section.
-outform DER|NET|PEM
This specifies the output format, the options have the same meaning as the -inform option.
-in filename
This specifies the input filename to read a key from or standard input if this option is not specified. If the key is encrypted a pass phrase will be prompted for.
-passin arg
the input file password source. For more information about the format of arg see the PASS PHRASE ARGUMENTS section in openssl.
-out filename
This specifies the output filename to write a key to or standard output if this option is not specified. If any encryption options are set then a pass phrase will be prompted for. The output filename should not be the same as the input filename.
-passout password
the output file password source. For more information about the format of arg see the PASS PHRASE ARGUMENTS section in openssl.
-aes128|-aes192|-aes256|-camellia128|-camellia192|-camellia256|-des|-des3|-idea
These options encrypt the private key with the specified cipher before outputting it. A pass phrase is prompted for. If none of these options is specified the key is written in plain text. This means that using the rsa utility to read in an encrypted key with no encryption option can be used to remove the pass phrase from a key, or by setting the encryption options it can be use to add or change the pass phrase. These options can only be used with PEM format output files.
-text
prints out the various public or private key components in plain text in addition to the encoded version.
-noout
this option prevents output of the encoded version of the key.
-modulus
this option prints out the value of the modulus of the key.
-check
this option checks the consistency of an RSA private key.
-pubin
by default a private key is read from the input file: with this option a public key is read instead.
-pubout
by default a private key is output: with this option a public key will be output instead. This option is automatically set if the input is a public key.
-RSAPublicKey_in, -RSAPublicKey_out
like -pubin and -pubout except RSAPublicKey format is used instead.
-engine id
specifying an engine (by its unique id string) will cause rsa to attempt to obtain a functional reference to the specified engine, thus initialising it if needed. The engine will then be set as the default for all available algorithms.
NOTES
The PEM private key format uses the header and footer lines:
-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
The PEM public key format uses the header and footer lines:
-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----
-----END PUBLIC KEY-----
The PEM RSAPublicKey format uses the header and footer lines:
-----BEGIN RSA PUBLIC KEY-----
-----END RSA PUBLIC KEY-----
The NET form is a format compatible with older Netscape servers and Microsoft IIS .key files, this uses unsalted RC4 for its encryption. It is not very secure and so should only be used when necessary.
Some newer version of IIS have additional data in the exported .key files. To use these with the utility, view the file with a binary editor and look for the string "private-key", then trace back to the byte sequence 0x30, 0x82 (this is an ASN1 SEQUENCE). Copy all the data from this point onwards to another file and use that as the input to the rsa utility with the -inform NET option.
EXAMPLES
To remove the pass phrase on an RSA private key:
openssl rsa -in key.pem -out keyout.pem
To encrypt a private key using triple DES:
openssl rsa -in key.pem -des3 -out keyout.pem
To convert a private key from PEM to DER format:
openssl rsa -in key.pem -outform DER -out keyout.der
To print out the components of a private key to standard output:
openssl rsa -in key.pem -text -noout
To just output the public part of a private key:
openssl rsa -in key.pem -pubout -out pubkey.pem
Output the public part of a private key in RSAPublicKey format:
openssl rsa -in key.pem -RSAPublicKey_out -out pubkey.pem
To extract the key and cert from a pem file:
Extract key
openssl pkey -in foo.pem -out foo.key
Another method of extracting the key...
openssl rsa -in foo.pem -out foo.key
Extract all the certs, including the CA Chain
openssl crl2pkcs7 -nocrl -certfile foo.pem | openssl pkcs7 -print_certs -out foo.cert
Extract the textually first cert as DER
openssl x509 -in foo.pem -outform DER -out first-cert.der
Pre-requisite
openssl should be installed.
On Windows, if Git Bash is installed, try that! Alternate binaries can be found here.
Step 1: Extract .key from .pem
openssl pkey -in cert.pem -out cert.key
Step 2: Extract .crt from .pem
openssl crl2pkcs7 -nocrl -certfile cert.pem | openssl pkcs7 -print_certs -out cert.crt
This is what I did on windows.
Download a zip file that contains the open ssl exe from Google
Unpack the zip file and go into the bin folder.
Go to the address bar in the bin folder and type cmd. This will open a command prompt at this folder.
move/Put the .pem file into this bin folder.
Run two commands. One creates the cert and the second the key file
openssl x509 -outform der -in yourPemFilename.pem -out certfileOutName.crt
openssl rsa -in yourPemFilename.pem -out keyfileOutName.key
If you asked this question because you're using mkcert then the trick is that the .pem file is the cert and the -key.pem file is the key.
(You don't need to convert, just run mkcert yourdomain.dev otherdomain.dev )
A .crt stores the certificate.. in pem format. So a .pem, while it can also have other things like a csr (Certificate signing request), a private key, a public key, or other certs, when it is storing just a cert, is the same thing as a .crt.
A pem is a base 64 encoded file with a header and a footer between each section.
To extract a particular section, a perl script such as the following is totally valid, but feel free to use some of the openssl commands.
perl -ne "\$n++ if /BEGIN/; print if \$n == 1 && /BEGIN/.../END/;" mydomain.pem
where ==1 can be changed to which ever section you need. Obviously if you know exactly the header and footer you require and there is only one of those in the file (usually the case if you keep just the cert and the key in there), you can simplify it:
perl -ne "print if /^-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----\$/.../END/;" mydomain.pem