OpenSSL: PEM routines:PEM_read_bio:no start line:pem_lib.c:703:Expecting: TRUSTED CERTIFICATE

Question

I need a hash-name for file for posting in Stunnel's CApath directory. I have got some certs in this directory and they are working well. Also, I have a server sert and server key:

cert = c:\Program Files (x86)\stunnel\server_cert.pem 
key = c:\Program> Files (x86)\stunnel\private\server_key.pem

When I try to calculate a hash of my new cert, I get an error:

/etc/pki/tls/misc/c_hash cert.pem

unable to load certificate 140603809879880:error:0906D06C:PEM
routines:PEM_read_bio:no start line:pem_lib.c:703:Expecting: TRUSTED CERTIFICATE

As I understand I must sign my cert, but I don't understand how I can do that. Please, provide the solution.

P.S.:

The message

unable to load certificate 140603809879880:error:0906D06C:PEM
routines:PEM_read_bio:no start line:pem_lib.c:703:Expecting: TRUSTED CERTIFICATE:

posted when I made c_hash for cert.pem This is not server_cert.pem, this is Root_CA and it is content something like

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----  
...6UXBNSDVg5rSx60=.. 

-----END CERTIFICATE-----

When I write

openssl x509 -noout -text -in cert.pem

In console panel I see this info:

    Certificate:
    Data:
        Version: 3 (0x2)
        Serial Number: 1 (0x1)
    Signature Algorithm: sha1WithRSAEncryption
        Issuer: C=BE, ST=BB, L=BB, O=BANKSYS NV, OU=SCY, CN=TEST Root CA
        Validity
            Not Before: May 31 08:06:40 2005 GMT
            Not After : May 31 08:06:40 2020 GMT
        Subject: C=BE, ST=BB, L=BB, O=BB NV, OU=SCY, CN=TEST Root CA
        Subject Public Key Info:
            Public Key Algorithm: rsaEncryption
                Public-Key: (2048 bit)
                Modulus:
                    00:82:c8:58:1e:e5:7a:b2:63:a6:15:bd:f9:bb:1f:
............
                Exponent: 65537 (0x10001)
        X509v3 extensions:
            X509v3 Basic Constraints: critical
                CA:TRUE
            X509v3 Key Usage: critical
                Certificate Sign, CRL Sign
            X509v3 Subject Key Identifier:
                76:70:AB:92:9B:B1:26:CE:9E:93:D8:77:4F:78:0D:B8:D4:6C:DA:C6
    Signature Algorithm: sha1WithRSAEncryption
         2c:7e:bd:3f:da:48:a4:df:8d:7c:96:58:f7:87:bd:e7:16:24:
...............

Answer 1

1. Since you are on Windows, make sure that your certificate in Windows "compatible", most importantly that it doesn't have ^M in the end of each line

   If you open it it will look like this:

   -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----^M
   MIIDITCCAoqgAwIBAgIQL9+89q6RUm0PmqPfQDQ+mjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQUFADBM^M
   

   To solve "this" open it with Write or Notepad++ and have it convert it to Windows "style"

2. Try to run openssl x509 -text -inform DER -in server_cert.pem and see what the output is, it is unlikely that a private/secret key would be untrusted, trust only is needed if you exported the key from a keystore, did you?

Answer 2

You can get this misleading error if you naively try to do this:

[clear] -> Private Key Encrypt -> [encrypted] -> Public Key Decrypt -> [clear]

Encrypting data using a private key is not allowed by design.

You can see from the command line options for open ssl that the only options to encrypt -> decrypt go in one direction public -> private.

  -encrypt        encrypt with public key
  -decrypt        decrypt with private key

The other direction is intentionally prevented because public keys basically "can be guessed." So, encrypting with a private key means the only thing you gain is verifying the author has access to the private key.

The private key encrypt -> public key decrypt direction is called "signing" to differentiate it from being a technique that can actually secure data.

  -sign           sign with private key
  -verify         verify with public key

Note: my description is a simplification for clarity. Read this answer for more information.

Answer 3

My situation was a little different. The solution was to strip the .pem from everything outside of the CERTIFICATE and PRIVATE KEY sections and to invert the order which they appeared. After converting from pfx to pem file, the certificate looked like this:

Bag Attributes
localKeyID: ...
issuer=...
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
...
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
Bag Attributes
more garbage...
-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
...
-----END PRIVATE KEY-----

After correcting the file, it was just:

-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
...
-----END PRIVATE KEY-----
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
...
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

Answer 4

Change encoding in notepad++ UTF-8 with BOM. That is how it worked for me

Answer 5

Another possible cause of this is trying to use the ;x509; module on something that is not X.509.

The server certificate is X.509 format, but the private key is RSA.

So:

openssl rsa -noout -text -in privkey.pem
openssl x509 -noout -text -in servercert.pem

Answer 6

I had the same issue using Windows, got if fixed by opening it in Notepad++ and changing the encoding from "UCS-2 LE BOM" to "UTF-8".

Answer 7

My mistake was simply using the CSR file instead of the CERT file.