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Ruby

Load an Encrypted Private Key from PEM Text

See more Private Key Examples

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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Ruby
require 'chilkat'

success = false

#  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.

privKey = Chilkat::CkPrivateKey.new()

#  The PEM text of an encrypted private key.
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.
password = "myKeyPassword"

success = privKey.LoadEncryptedPem(pemText,password)
if (success == false)
    print privKey.lastErrorText() + "\n";
    exit
end

print "Loaded a " + privKey.keyType() + " private key." + "\n";