OpenSSL Commands to Convert Your SSL Certificate File Format

Convert SSL Certificate in Your Required File Format Using OpenSSL Commands

Your private key is intended to remain on the server. While we try to make this process as secure as possible by using SSL to encrypt the key when it is sent to the server, for complete security, we recommend that you manually convert the certificate on your server using the OpenSSL commands below.

CA (Certificate Authority) often sends you the SSL certificate file in a format that isn't compatible and isn't accepted by your server. Henceforth, it becomes necessary to convert the SSL certificate file format into one that gets accepted by your server.

Here are the easy-to-understand and use OpenSSL commands to convert your SSL certificate file format into the one supported by your server.

OpenSSL Commands to Convert Your PEM File

  • From PEM to DER openssl x509 -outform der -in certificate.pem -out certificate.der
  • From PEM to P7B openssl crl2pkcs7 -nocrl -certfile certificate.cer -out certificate.p7b -certfile CACert.cer
  • From PEM to PFX openssl pkcs12 -export -out certificate.pfx -inkey privateKey.key -in certificate.crt -certfile CACert.crt

OpenSSL Commands to Convert Your P7B File

  • From P7B to PEM openssl pkcs7 -print_certs -in certificate.p7b -out certificate.cer
  • From P7B to PFX openssl pkcs7 -print_certs -in certificate.p7b -out certificate.cer
    openssl pkcs12 -export -in certificate.cer -inkey privateKey.key -out certificate.pfx -certfile CACert.cer

OpenSSL Commands to Convert Your PFX File

  • From PFX to PEM openssl pkcs12 -in certificate.pfx -out certificate.cer -nodes