Openssh Private Key to RSA Private Key

BashMacosSshRsaOpenssh

Bash Problem Overview

(I am using MAC)

My id_rsa starts with

-----BEGIN OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----

but I expect it to starts with

-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

I have send my id_rsa.pub to server administrator to get the access to server, so I don't want to generate a new key.

  1. Is there any way that I can transfer my id_rsa which is a openssh private key to a RSA private key? (command please.)

  2. If I can transfer, do I also need to transfer id_rsa.pub? (command please.) It seems id_rsa.pub doesn't have a header like id_rsa, so I am not sure if I should also transfer this.

Bash Solutions

Solution 1 - Bash

You have an OpenSSH format key and want a PEM format key. It is not intuitive to me, but the suggested way to convert is by changing the password for the key and writing it in a different format at the same time.

The command looks like this:

ssh-keygen -p -N "" -m pem -f /path/to/key

It will change the file in place, so make a backup of your current key just in case. -N "" will set the passphrase as none. I haven't tested this with a passphrase.

The public key should be fine as is.

For full explanation of the above command, see the -m option here: https://man.openbsd.org/ssh-keygen#m

Solution 2 - Bash

Here's what worked for me for an in-place conversion of a key with a passphrase:

ssh-keygen -p -P "old passphrase" -N "new passphrase" -m pem -f path/to/key

Solution 3 - Bash

You can achieve this easily if you can get your hands on a linux system. I am using ubuntu 18.04 and did the following:

  1. update packages: sudo apt update
  2. install putty: sudo apt install putty
  3. install puttygen: sudo apt install putty-tools
  4. convert the private key to the intermediate format SSHv2: puttygen yourkey -O private-sshcom -o newkey
  5. convert it back to RSA/PEM: ssh-keygen -i -f newkey > newkey_in_right_format

And you are good to go

Solution 4 - Bash

  1. Install and open puttygen
  2. Click on "Load an existing private key file"
  3. Click on menu item "Conversions" -> "Export OpenSSH key"
  4. Save file
Categories
Recommended Bash Solutions
Recommended Macos Solutions
Recommended Ssh Solutions
Recommended Rsa Solutions

Previous Solution:

Fragments destroyed / recreated with Jetpack's Android Navigation components

AndroidAndroid FragmentsAndroid JetpackAndroid Architecture-NavigationAndroid Jetpack-Navigation

Next Solution:

What typescript type do I use with useRef() hook when setting current manually?

ReactjsTypescriptReact Hooks

Attributions

All content for this solution is sourced from the original question on Stackoverflow.

The content on this page is licensed under the Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license.

Content TypeOriginal AuthorOriginal Content on Stackoverflow
QuestionEleanorView Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - BashTad M.View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - BashjjanczyszynView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - BashBabaNewView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - Bashjersey-city-ninjaView Answer on Stackoverflow