Perl

Load an Encrypted Private Key from PEM Text

Demonstrates the Chilkat PrivateKey.LoadEncryptedPem method, which loads a private key from PEM text, using a password when the PEM is encrypted. The first argument is the PEM string and the second is the password. Unencrypted PEM is also accepted.

Background: An encrypted PEM protects the key material at rest — a stolen file is useless without the passphrase — which is why encrypted keys are preferred for anything shipped or stored. This loader supplies that passphrase to decrypt a BEGIN ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY block (and gracefully handles unencrypted PEM too), so it is a safe default when a PEM might be either. The password should come from a secure source, never a hard-coded literal.

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use strict;
use warnings;
use Chilkat2;

# Demonstrates the PrivateKey.LoadEncryptedPem method, which loads a private key from PEM text.
# The 1st argument is the PEM string and the 2nd is the password (used when the PEM is
# encrypted).  Unencrypted PEM is also accepted.

my $privKey = Chilkat2::PrivateKey->new;

# The PEM text of an encrypted private key.
my $pemText = "-----BEGIN ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY-----\nMIIFHzBJ...\n-----END ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY-----";

# The key password is not hard-coded in a real application; obtain it from an interactive
# prompt, environment variable, or a secrets vault.
my $password = 'myKeyPassword';

my $success = $privKey->LoadEncryptedPem($pemText, $password);
if (!$success) {
    print $privKey->LastErrorText, "\n";
    exit;
}

print 'Loaded a ', $privKey->KeyType, " private key.\n";