This is a text-only version of the following page on https://raymii.org:
---
Title       : 	OpenSSL match certificate and private key
Author      : 	Remy van Elst
Date        : 	09-02-2013
URL         : 	https://raymii.org/s/snippets/OpenSSL_match_certificate_with_private_key.html
Format      : 	Markdown/HTML
---



Today I had to set up something but I kept getting ssl errors. Turns out, the
certificate did not match the private key, because the private key file was
damaged. After I copied the certificate all was good, so it might got damaged
while `scping` it.

<p class="ad"> <b>Recently I removed all Google Ads from this site due to their invasive tracking, as well as Google Analytics. Please, if you found this content useful, consider a small donation using any of the options below:</b><br><br> <a href="https://leafnode.nl">I'm developing an open source monitoring app called  Leaf Node Monitoring, for windows, linux & android. Go check it out!</a><br><br> <a href="https://github.com/sponsors/RaymiiOrg/">Consider sponsoring me on Github. It means the world to me if you show your appreciation and you'll help pay the server costs.</a><br><br> <a href="https://www.digitalocean.com/?refcode=7435ae6b8212">You can also sponsor me by getting a Digital Ocean VPS. With this referral link you'll get $100 credit for 60 days. </a><br><br> </p>


The following `openssl` commands give you the hash of the modulus of certificate
and the private key. If those two don't match then they either do not below to
each other, or the file is damaged.

My private key is named `private.key` and my certificate file is named
`certificate.crt`. Both are in PEM format.

Certificate:

    
    
    openssl x509 -noout -modulus -in certificate.crt | openssl md5
    (stdin)= d238708c18b3c0d42994cfb61f060467
    

Private Key:

    
    
    openssl rsa -noout -modulus -in private.key | openssl md5 
    (stdin)= 5dd148535fb0763926c285c83cb6b58
    

They don't match... This was the result after I did another `scp`:

    
    
    openssl rsa -noout -modulus -in private.key | openssl md5
    (stdin)= d238708c18b3c0d42994cfb61f060467
    

Perfect match!

   [1]: https://www.digitalocean.com/?refcode=7435ae6b8212

---

License:
All the text on this website is free as in freedom unless stated otherwise. 
This means you can use it in any way you want, you can copy it, change it 
the way you like and republish it, as long as you release the (modified) 
content under the same license to give others the same freedoms you've got 
and place my name and a link to this site with the article as source.

This site uses Google Analytics for statistics and Google Adwords for 
advertisements. You are tracked and Google knows everything about you. 
Use an adblocker like ublock-origin if you don't want it.

All the code on this website is licensed under the GNU GPL v3 license 
unless already licensed under a license which does not allows this form 
of licensing or if another license is stated on that page / in that software:

    This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
    the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
    (at your option) any later version.

    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
    GNU General Public License for more details.

    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
    along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

Just to be clear, the information on this website is for meant for educational 
purposes and you use it at your own risk. I do not take responsibility if you 
screw something up. Use common sense, do not 'rm -rf /' as root for example. 
If you have any questions then do not hesitate to contact me.

See https://raymii.org/s/static/About.html for details.