VB.NET

Export an Encrypted PKCS #8 Private Key as Encoded Text

Demonstrates the Chilkat PrivateKey.GetPkcs8EncryptedENC method, which exports the key as password-protected PKCS #8 DER and encodes the encrypted DER as text. The first argument names the binary encoding and the second is the password. The cipher is selected by Pkcs8EncryptAlg.

Note: The file paths are relative to the application's current working directory. Absolute paths may also be used. Supply the paths appropriate to your own environment.

Background: This combines encryption with text encoding: the key is protected by a passphrase and returned as a string, ideal for storing an encrypted key in a text-only medium such as JSON or an environment variable. It is the encrypted counterpart to GetPkcs8ENC. Source the password securely.

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VB.NET

Dim success As Boolean = False

'  Load a private key to export.
Dim privKey As New Chilkat.PrivateKey
success = privKey.LoadPemFile("qa_data/private.pem")
If (success = False) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(privKey.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If


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

'  Export as password-protected PKCS #8 DER, then encode the encrypted DER as text.  The 1st
'  argument names the binary encoding and the 2nd is the password.  The cipher is selected by the
'  Pkcs8EncryptAlg property.
Dim encoded As String = privKey.GetPkcs8EncryptedENC("base64",password)
If (privKey.LastMethodSuccess = False) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(privKey.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If

Debug.WriteLine(encoded)