"openssl dsa" Viewing Private and Public Key Pair

Cryptography Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples

∟Migrating Keys from "keystore" to "OpenSSL" Key Files

∟"openssl dsa" Viewing Private and Public Key Pair

This section provides a tutorial example on how to view a private and public key pair stored in PEM format using the 'openssl dsa' command. The key pair was originally generated by the 'keytool -genkeypair' command.

After going through so much trouble of dumping the key pair out of the keystore file, encoding it with Base64, and making it to meet PEM file standard, finally I can view it with the "openssl dsa" command now:

herong> openssl dsa -in herong.key -text
read DSA key
Private-Key: (1024 bit)
priv:
    49:56:e8:f7:c5:c0:64:33:7d:45:9a:19:fa:58:b7:
    90:82:95:11:b9
pub:
    00:b0:61:2b:c1:88:0e:19:66:58:37:b5:bc:0f:78:
    88:f7:79:b5:fa:6c:cb:6c:b2:86:44:d8:b2:15:13:
    e3:09:dd:9c:5a:52:02:4a:fb:1c:30:e8:2b:b5:45:
    8f:88:5a:57:a9:1f:c0:b8:3d:1c:a1:a9:6f:20:76:
    a7:c0:eb:5e:df:bf:87:84:14:02:53:d5:87:c9:3a:
    13:9d:e8:45:4f:c6:2d:48:44:e2:80:18:63:e4:40:
    a1:f0:2c:e4:d2:86:34:8d:dd:93:92:42:1a:19:1d:
    0e:44:f6:a2:6d:94:1a:ed:d7:d2:94:7e:0b:26:88:
    a4:cb:c4:88:5b:56:49:2e:80
P:
    00:fd:7f:53:81:1d:75:12:29:52:df:4a:9c:2e:ec:
    e4:e7:f6:11:b7:52:3c:ef:44:00:c3:1e:3f:80:b6:
    51:26:69:45:5d:40:22:51:fb:59:3d:8d:58:fa:bf:
    c5:f5:ba:30:f6:cb:9b:55:6c:d7:81:3b:80:1d:34:
    6f:f2:66:60:b7:6b:99:50:a5:a4:9f:9f:e8:04:7b:
    10:22:c2:4f:bb:a9:d7:fe:b7:c6:1b:f8:3b:57:e7:
    c6:a8:a6:15:0f:04:fb:83:f6:d3:c5:1e:c3:02:35:
    54:13:5a:16:91:32:f6:75:f3:ae:2b:61:d7:2a:ef:
    f2:22:03:19:9d:d1:48:01:c7
Q:
    00:97:60:50:8f:15:23:0b:cc:b2:92:b9:82:a2:eb:
    84:0b:f0:58:1c:f5
G:
    00:f7:e1:a0:85:d6:9b:3d:de:cb:bc:ab:5c:36:b8:
    57:b9:79:94:af:bb:fa:3a:ea:82:f9:57:4c:0b:3d:
    07:82:67:51:59:57:8e:ba:d4:59:4f:e6:71:07:10:
    81:80:b4:49:16:71:23:e8:4c:28:16:13:b7:cf:09:
    32:8c:c8:a6:e1:3c:16:7a:8b:54:7c:8d:28:e0:a3:
    ae:1e:2b:b3:a6:75:91:6e:a3:7f:0b:fa:21:35:62:
    f1:fb:62:7a:01:24:3b:cc:a4:f1:be:a8:51:90:89:
    a8:83:df:e1:5a:e5:9f:06:92:8b:66:5e:80:7b:55:
    25:64:01:4c:3b:fe:cf:49:2a
writing DSA key
-----BEGIN DSA PRIVATE KEY-----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-----END DSA PRIVATE KEY-----

Wonderful! Here is what I learned from this exercise:

Private and public key pairs generated by "keytool" can be used by "OpenSSL".
Private and public key pairs stored in "keystore" files can be dumped out. But I have to write a Java program, DumpKey.java, to do this.
My DumpKey.java program does not write the key in PEM format. Extra steps are needed to convert the dumped binary keys to in PEM format.

My private and public key pair, herong.key, dumped and converted from the "keytool" keystore file is now ready to be used by "OpenSSL" for signing any documents.