I have converted a CER/DER certificate with something like this:
openssl x509 -inform der -in hostname.cer -out hostname.pem
The resulting PEM file contains just:
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
... contents here..
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
But it does not contain the key part, is that normal? So I cannot use it in PHP/SOAPClient because it won't connect to the host.
On the other hand, I have successfuly converted PFX/P12 format to PEM and the resulting file contains both certificate and key. But in the above case of the DER format certificate it doesn't.
What I used to convert the PFX to PEM was:
openssl pkcs12 -in ALEXANDRU_CATALIN.pfx -clcerts -nokeys -out ALEXANDRU_CATALIN_mycert.pem
openssl pkcs12 -in ALEXANDRU_CATALIN.pfx -nocerts -nodes -out ALEXANDRU_CATALIN_mykey.pem
And then join contents of both files into one called bundle.pem. This worked, I ended with a file with bot certificate and key and it connects vía SOAP to the API but as I say the DER to PEM doesn't give me a certificate that will work.
Any ideas on this? Am I missing something? Is the DER format not containing the key? Do I need something else?
A DER certificate file won't contain the private key. So there's no private key to convert. Only a PFX or a "multi-PEM" can contain both a certificate and a private key.
By default the public key is not converted.
BUT you can export it by adding argument -pubkey
openssl x509 -inform der -in hostname.cer -out hostname.pem -pubkey
will give you a PEM file as following :
-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----
{...}
-----END PUBLIC KEY-----
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
{...}
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
Reference: X509 documentation
Related
I m trying to get ssl file from pem file
I tried to the following
openssl x509 -outform der -in C:\Users\user\Desktop\ssl\abc.pem -out C:\Users\user\Desktop\ssl\ssl.crt
ssl.crt is generated. But i couldnt open the generated crt file in notepad.
i think there should be a file like the followin? Am i wrong
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----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mnkPIAou1Z5jJh5VkpTYghdae9C8x49OhgQ=
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
I'm having .crt and .pem file with
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIFSDCCBDCg........................................
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
and I want RSA key from this file.
anyone is having any idea that how we can do that.
I have used below command one by one
openssl rsa -in XXX.crt -out input1.der -outform DER
openssl rsa -in input1.der -inform DER -out key.pem -outform PEM
But, It gives error:
unable to load Private Key 140331982231200:error:0906D06C:PEM
routines:PEM_read_bio:no start line:pem_lib.c:703:Expecting: ANY
PRIVATE KEY
and I have also used different command but it give above error.
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIFSDCCBDCg........................................
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
This is a certificate in pem format which is a wrapper over public key. A Certificate is supposed to be public and can be distributed, but private key (as the name suggest) is supposed to be kept secret. So a certificate can never contain a private key.
You mentioned, you have a ´.pem´ file too. What is it's content? Does it start with -----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----. If yes, it would be your private key.
The command you are trying:
openssl rsa
It expects a private key in input, but you are supplying it a certificate. Hence the error.
You can't get a private key from a certificate, because the private key isn't in the certificate, and you can't get it from a PEM file unless the PEM file contains it, which ain't necessarily so,
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
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
I need to setup an Apache 2 server with SSL.
I have my *.key file, but all the documentation I've found online, *.crt files are specified, and my CA only provided me with a *.cer file.
Are *.cer files the same as *.crt? If not, how can I convert CER to CRT format?
File extensions for cryptographic certificates aren't really as standardized as you'd expect. Windows by default treats double-clicking a .crt file as a request to import the certificate into the Windows Root Certificate store, but treats a .cer file as a request just to view the certificate. So, they're different in the sense that Windows has some inherent different meaning for what happens when you double click each type of file.
But the way that Windows handles them when you double-click them is about the only difference between the two. Both extensions just represent that it contains a public certificate. You can rename a certificate file to use one extension in place of the other in any system or configuration file that I've seen. And on non-Windows platforms (and even on Windows), people aren't particularly careful about which extension they use, and treat them both interchangeably, as there's no difference between them as long as the contents of the file are correct.
Making things more confusing is that there are two standard ways of storing certificate data in a file: One is a "binary" X.509 encoding, and the other is a "text" base64 encoding that usually starts with "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----". These encode the same data but in different ways. Most systems accept both formats, but, if you need to, you can convert one to the other via openssl or other tools. The encoding within a certificate file is really independent of which extension somebody gave the file.
Basically there are two CER certificate encoding types, DER and Base64. When type DER returns an error loading certificate (asn1 encoding routines), try the PEM and it shall work.
openssl x509 -inform DER -in certificate.cer -out certificate.crt
openssl x509 -inform PEM -in certificate.cer -out certificate.crt
According to documentation mod_ssl:
SSLCertificateFile:
Name: SSLCertificateFile
Description: Server PEM-encoded X.509 certificate file
Certificate file should be PEM-encoded X.509 Certificate file:
openssl x509 -inform DER -in certificate.cer -out certificate.pem
CER is an X.509 certificate in binary form, DER encoded.
CRT is a binary X.509 certificate, encapsulated in text (base-64) encoding.
It is not the same encoding.
I use command:
openssl x509 -inform PEM -in certificate.cer -out certificate.crt
But CER is an X.509 certificate in binary form, DER encoded.
CRT is a binary X.509 certificate, encapsulated in text (base-64) encoding.
Because of that, you maybe should use:
openssl x509 -inform DER -in certificate.cer -out certificate.crt
And then to import your certificate:
Copy your CA to dir:
/usr/local/share/ca-certificates/
Use command:
sudo cp foo.crt /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/foo.crt
Update the CA store:
sudo update-ca-certificates
I assume that you have a .cer file containing PKCS#7-encoded certificate data and you want to convert it to PEM-encoded certificate data (typically a .crt or .pem file). For instance, a .cer file containing PKCS#7-encoded data looks like this:
-----BEGIN PKCS7-----
MIIW4gYJKoZIhvcNAQcCoIIW0zCCFs8CAQExADALBgkqhkiG9w0BBwGggha1MIIH
...
POI9n9cd2cNgQ4xYDiKWL2KjLB+6rQXvqzJ4h6BUcxm1XAX5Uj5tLUUL9wqT6u0G
+bKhADEA
-----END PKCS7-----
PEM certificate data looks like this:
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIHNjCCBh6gAwIBAgIQAlBxtqKazsxUSR9QdWWxaDANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQUFADBm
...
nv72c/OV4nlyrvBLPoaS5JFUJvFUG8RfAEY=
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
There is an OpenSSL command that will convert .cer files (with PKCS#7 data) to the PEM data you may be expecting to encounter (the BEGIN CERTIFICATE block in the example above). You can coerce PKCS#7 data into PEM format by this command on a file we'll call certfile.cer:
openssl pkcs7 -text -in certfile.cer -print_certs -outform PEM -out certfile.pem
Note that a .cer or .pem file might contain one or more certificates (possibly the entire certificate chain).
The answer to the question how to convert a .cer file into a .crt file (they are encoded differently!) is:
openssl pkcs7 -print_certs -in certificate.cer -out certificate.crt
If your cer file has binary format you must convert it by
openssl x509 -inform DER -in YOUR_CERTIFICATE.cer -out YOUR_CERTIFICATE.crt
The .cer and .crt file should be interchangable as far as importing them into a keystore.
Take a look at the contents of the .cer file. Erase anything before the -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- line and after the -----END CERTIFICATE----- line. You'll be left with the BEGIN/END lines with a bunch of Base64-encoded stuff between them.
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIDQTCCAqqgAwIBAgIJALQea21f1bVjMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBBQUAMIG1MQswCQYD
...
pfDACIDHTrwCk5OefMwArfEkSBo/
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
Then just import it into your keyfile using keytool.
keytool -import -alias myalias -keystore my.keystore -trustcacerts -file mycert.cer
Here is one case that worked for me if we need to convert .cer to .crt, though both of them are contextually same
Generate crt file:
openssl pkcs12 -in identity.p12 -nokeys -out mycertificate.crt
Generate key file:
openssl pkcs12 -in identity.p12 -out mycertificate.key -nodes -nocerts
where we should have a valid private key (identity.p12) PKCS 12 format, this one i generated from keystore (.jks file) provided by CA (Certification Authority) who created my certificate.
Just do
openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in server.cer -signkey server.key -out server.crt