Generate Pem File From Key File

Posted By admin On 14.12.20

Your keys may already be in PEM format, but just named with.crt or.key. If the file's content begins with -BEGIN and you can read it in a text editor: The file uses base64, which is readable in ASCII, not binary format. The certificate is already in PEM format. Just change the extension to.pem. If the file is in binary. PEM files are oftentimes required by servers. SSL certificates have several different file formats. What works for one server might not work for another. Fortunately, I’m here to help you figure out how to turn your SSL certificate files into a.PEM file. A.PEM file is sometimes referred to as a concatenated certificate container file. How do I create a PEM file from the certificates I received from you? PEM is a widely used encoding format for security certificates. Syntax and content is defined by X.509 v3 standards for digital certificates, defined in IETF RFC 5280 specifications. I'm having an issue generating a public key that the openssl PEMreadbioRSAPUBKEY function can consume. I keep getting errors. I keep getting errors. Obviously I cannot simply use the ASCII string in the ssh-keygen.pub key file as it is in SSH file format or I perhaps SubjectPublicKeyInfo structure. Start PuTTYgen. For Actions, choose Load, and then navigate to your.ppk file. Choose the.ppk file, and then choose Open. (Optional) For Key passphrase, enter a passphrase. For Confirm passphrase, re-enter your passphrase. Note: Although a passphrase isn't required. Nov 25, 2019  One reason your file doesn't open in any of the ways described above is that you're not actually dealing with a PEM file. You might instead have a file that just uses a similarly spelled file.

I am trying to connect to an SSL server which requires me to authenticate myself. In order to use SSL over Apache MINA I need a suitable JKS file. However, I have only been given a.PEM file.

PuTTYgen, part of the open source network networking client PuTTY, is a crucial generating tool to create public and private SSH keys for servers. The native file format of PuTTY is .ppk files. Additionally, the tool is used for SSH connectivity. So users can use PuTTY to connect and securely transfer data from localhost to remote system.

But to use PuTTY, the private keys must be in the native format of the application. So for example, as Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), a core part of the cloud-computing platform, generates Privacy-Enhanced Mail (PEM) file format, a user must first convert the file to .ppk file format before connecting to Linux Instance (virtual server on Amazon Web Services) from a Windows machine.

The EC2 allows users to lease virtual systems so that they can run their applications on it.

However if one plans to use PuTTY’s SSH client to connect, then they are first required to convert the .pem file to .ppk using PuTTYgen and then use PuTTY application to join local and remote hosts.

  • 4 Converting .Pem to .Ppk on Unix or Linux

What Is the .Pem File Format?

Privacy-Enhanced Mail (PEM) file extension is a format that is mainly used to transmit data, certificates, email and cryptographic keys privately. The PEM file format is a tamperproof and secure way of storing and transferring data.

As a ‘.pem file’ can store multiple types of data; it represents data with appropriate suffix. While the most common is .pem suffix, others include .key for private keys and .cer or .crt for certificates. The PEM file format encodes it with the binary-to-text encoding scheme – base64 so that it represents binary data in ASCII string.

Even though the technological advancements have led to a more secure alternative to PEM container, it is still leveraged to store public and private certificates, root certificates and many others.

Unlike most file formats that are easy to convert via online conversion tools, a user requires a specific application to convert files that have .pem extensions. PuTTYgen is one such application that quickly converts f .pem files to .ppk.

Convert .Pem to .Ppk using PuTTYgen

The primary requisite is to download and install PuTTY application. As part of the networking client, PuTTYgen does not have to be downloaded separately. Users must download the latest version of the app and install the entire suite. Once installed, PuTTYgen will be ready to convert .pem files to .ppk format. We will provide detail steps to convert files on both operating systems – Windows and Unix.

Converting .Pem to .Ppk on Windows

Create Pem File From Private Key

  1. Click on Start menu> All Programs > PuTTY > PuTTYgen.
  2. The following window will present with options on the crucial a user wants to generate. Select the option ‘RSA (Rivest–Shamir–Adleman). RSA is a public-key cryptosystem that is commonly used to transmit data securely. Users with an older version of PuTTY should select the option – ‘SSH-2 RSA.’
  3. Next, click on the option ‘Load.’ As PuTTY supports its native file format, it will only show files that have .ppk file extension. Therefore, users have to choose the ‘All Files’ option from the drop-down bar. It will display all key files included the .pem file.
  4. Now, select the .pem file that you want to convert. As aforementioned that PuTTYgen is used for SSH connectivity, so it crucial for users to select the specific file that they plan to convert and click ‘Open.’ To confirm, click on ‘OK.’
  5. In the resultant window, click on ‘Save private key’ which will convert and save the key file in PuTTY compatible format.
  6. PuTTYgen will prompt a warning of saving the key without a passphrase. Hit ‘Yes’ on it.
  7. Now, give the name to your file and PuTTYgen will automatically add .ppk file extension.

Note – Passphrases provide extra protection, but it sometimes gets annoying as each time a user copies files they have to enter the passphrase. Although, it entirely depends on the user if they wish or don’t wish to add the extra layer of protection

Once the file is converted to PuTTY compatible format, users can connect their local machine with remote servers.

Converting .Pem to .Ppk on Unix or Linux

To convert the file on Unix is far simpler than Windows. Users are first required to install PuTTY application on their Unix machines. Once done, all a user must do is enter a one-line command. First, run the PuTTYgen command and type the below-written command:

$ sudo puttygen pemKey.pem -o ppkKey.ppk -O private

Voila! The .pem files will quickly be converted to PuTTY native file format. Users can connect via PuTTY to remote servers from local systems using the newly created .ppk files on both Windows and Unix.

Connect Using PuTTY

Once the .pem file is converted .ppk then users can connect to remote hosts using PuTTY’s SSH client. Below are steps to launch a PuTTY session.

  1. First, open PuTTY and input the host IP address. Please note that an SSL VPN connection must be established if the connection is to with 10.X private address.
  2. Now, from the category pane, navigate to Connection and expand SSH and the Auth.
  3. Click on ‘Browse’ and select the newly converted .ppk file, that was generated using PuTTYgen.
  4. Now to commence the PuTTY session, choose the option ‘open.’

Note: If the remote and local hosts connect for the first time using PuTTY then the application will pop up a dialog box confirming the authenticity of the connection. It just provides an added layer of security, so click ‘Yes’ when it appears.

Transferring Files Using PuTTY

Interestingly, one can also use PuTTY applications another component the PuTTY Secure Copy client (PSCP) to transfer files to remote servers. The PSCP is a Secure copy protocol (SCP) client that enables secure transfer of files from localhost to remote hosts.

If users are not comfortable using the command-line tool they can choose another Graphic user interface-based SCP client. One of the notable is WinSCP – an open-source multi-protocol supportive application for Microsoft Windows.

Back to PSCP, users are required to use the private key they generated while converting the .pem file to the .ppk file.

Converting a .pem file to a .ppk using PuTTYgen may now seem simple. The above information also briefs users on using PuTTY’s SSH client to connect virtual servers with local machines.

Convert .crt & .key files into .pem file for HTTParty
server_certificates_to_pem.md

commented Jul 18, 2015

Thx! /linux-generate-ssh-key-2048.html.

commented Sep 17, 2015

thank you so much.. u save me.

commented Jan 26, 2018

you have 'hsot' name in your code. If you cut and paste this, make sure you correct the type or you're not going to get too far.

commented Jul 12, 2018

perfect!!!

Generate Pem File From Key File Online

commented Aug 22, 2018

Thanks, forgot how to convert private keys when setting up a mysql instance. Second method worked perfectly

commented Jan 15, 2019

the command generate an empty file, any idea please?

commented Jul 30, 2019

You king. Thanks for the help!

commented Jul 30, 2019

Wow, I'd completely forgotten about this snippet. I'm glad to see it's been helpful to someone besides myself.

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