How to create RSA private key with passphrase in Go?
I read the documentation for the crypto
package but I was unable to piece together a solution from it.
A passphrase is a word or phrase that protects private key files. It prevents unauthorized users from encrypting them. Usually it's just the secret encryption/decryption key used for Ciphers. To change the passphrase you simply have to read it with the old pass-phrase and write it again, specifying the new pass-phrase.
The passphrase is just a key used to encrypt the file that contains the RSA key, using a symmetric cipher (usually DES or 3DES). In order to use the key for public-key encryption, you first need to decrypt its file using the decryption key. ssh does this automatically by asking your for the passphrase.
SSH uses private/public key pairs to protect your communication with the server. SSH passphrases protect your private key from being used by someone who doesn't know the passphrase. Without a passphrase, anyone who gains access to your computer has the potential to copy your private key.
First step, generate a private key. Second step, convert it to PEM format. Third step, encrypt the PEM.
All can be done using Golang's standard library, which is very complete. The code is nothing difficult so I put it here. All there is to it is to know which functions to use.
import (
"crypto/rand"
"crypto/rsa"
"crypto/x509"
"encoding/pem"
)
func PrivateKeyToEncryptedPEM(bits int, pwd string) ([]byte, error) {
// Generate the key of length bits
key, err := rsa.GenerateKey(rand.Reader, bits)
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
// Convert it to pem
block := &pem.Block{
Type: "RSA PRIVATE KEY",
Bytes: x509.MarshalPKCS1PrivateKey(key),
}
// Encrypt the pem
if pwd != "" {
block, err = x509.EncryptPEMBlock(rand.Reader, block.Type, block.Bytes, []byte(pwd), x509.PEMCipherAES256)
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
}
return pem.EncodeToMemory(block), nil
}
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