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 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 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 2006-2023 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>.