Can't get private key with openssl (no start line:pem_lib.c:703:Expecting: ANY PRIVATE KEY)

Question

I have a .key file, when I do

openssl rsa -text -in file.key

I get

unable to load Private Key 140000419358368:error:0906D06C:PEM routines:PEM_read_bio:no start line:pem_lib.c:703:Expecting: ANY PRIVATE KEY 

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Also I have a .cer file and when I do

openssl x509 -text -in file.cer

I get

unable to load certificate 140387178489504:error:0906D06C:PEM routines:PEM_read_bio:no start line:pem_lib.c:703:Expecting: TRUSTED CERTIFICATE 

---

But if as pointed here I run the command like:

openssl x509 -text -inform DER -in file.cer

I get

Certificate:     Data:         Version: 3 (0x2)         Some more information         ... -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- MIIEdDCCA1ygAwIBAgIUMjAwMDEwMDAwMDAxMDAwMDU4NjcwDQYJKoZIhvcNAQEF ... -----END CERTIFICATE----- 

But that doesn't seem to work with the key, because when I run

openssl rsa -text -inform DER -in aaa010101aaa__csd_10.key

I get

unable to load Private Key 140004844304032:error:0D0680A8:asn1 encoding routines:ASN1_CHECK_TLEN:wrong tag:tasn_dec.c:1337: 140004844304032:error:0D06C03A:asn1 encoding routines:ASN1_D2I_EX_PRIMITIVE:nested asn1 error:tasn_dec.c:849: 140004844304032:error:0D08303A:asn1 encoding routines:ASN1_TEMPLATE_NOEXP_D2I:nested asn1 error:tasn_dec.c:769:Field=version, Type=RSA 140004844304032:error:04093004:rsa routines:OLD_RSA_PRIV_DECODE:RSA lib:rsa_ameth.c:115: 140004844304032:error:0D0680A8:asn1 encoding routines:ASN1_CHECK_TLEN:wrong tag:tasn_dec.c:1337: 140004844304032:error:0D06C03A:asn1 encoding routines:ASN1_D2I_EX_PRIMITIVE:nested asn1 error:tasn_dec.c:849: 140004844304032:error:0D08303A:asn1 encoding routines:ASN1_TEMPLATE_NOEXP_D2I:nested asn1 error:tasn_dec.c:769:Field=version, Type=PKCS8_PRIV_KEY_INFO 

How can I get the private key and its certificate?

Answer 1

I ran into the 'Expecting: ANY PRIVATE KEY' error when using openssl on Windows (Ubuntu Bash and Git Bash had the same issue).

The cause of the problem was that I'd saved the key and certificate files in Notepad using UTF8. Resaving both files in ANSI format solved the problem.