PEM.md

PEM Format

PEM format is Privacy Enhanced Mail. You probably know it to look like files with content like:

-----BEGIN <CRYPTOGRAPHIC TYPE>-----
...base64 encoded binary data...
-----END <CRYPTOGRAPHIC TYPE>-----

• These files Base64 encode binary data of Cryptographics Keys and Certificates
• The binary data is encoding data structures using DER (Distinguished Encoding Rules X.690). This is widely used in X.509 for SSL/TLS certificates.
• These binary data structures are an implentation of ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation) to define abstract data structures that are both machine and human readable.

Generate RSA Key pairs

openssl genrsa -out private_key.pem 2048
openssl rsa -in private_key.pem -pubout -out public_key.pem

Trim key to single line

export PRIVATE_KEY=$(cat private_key.pem | sed '/-----BEGIN .*-----/d;/-----END .*-----/d' | tr -d '\n')
export PUBLIC_KEY=$(cat public_key.pem | sed '/-----BEGIN .*-----/d;/-----END .*-----/d' | tr -d '\n')