Bug 2946 - ssh-keygen -e -f id_rsa only exports public key, never private keys
Summary: ssh-keygen -e -f id_rsa only exports public key, never private keys
Status: CLOSED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: Portable OpenSSH
Classification: Unclassified
Component: ssh-keygen (show other bugs)
Version: 7.9p1
Hardware: Other Windows 7
: P5 enhancement
Assignee: Assigned to nobody
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2018-12-19 21:16 AEDT by Thomas Schweikle
Modified: 2021-04-23 14:53 AEST (History)
1 user (show)

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Description Thomas Schweikle 2018-12-19 21:16:33 AEDT 
"ssh-keygen -e -f id_rsa" only exports public key, never private keys.

# ssh-keygen -q -t rsa -b 2048 -N "" -C comment -f id_rsa
# ssh-keygen -e -f id_rsa
---- BEGIN SSH2 PUBLIC KEY ----
Comment: "2048-bit RSA, converted by root@gvm10 from OpenSSH"
AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQDX+xNaEHcrJDM+e+Ro4oace/UITT3I0LKS6OJ3PO
caObuC4ltk5ohbuVCdu1BsyVMXcYu14x/eZKdylwaVWipKE2kE859ozNclHoq4BEbSRdWM
dDrBNHXZrhoHIS5AwbgPOepZLVwoe/y6F+LKbesGGMMUVL1FARGily9tg/XDX2riO8sZVj
LPNtDXfEg/TmAF119MQ4w054bpMxnqsmBNbv3vWQwrE7f8gN5eAOMCgRDUPF+EL1wFR9IW
tgnpEy1X5cOENuLCUBSi01pT8lgn/DGetnrn2UTQHXb+Bw9lZ9yI3OQTVKd7KeWa2j00lA
ZHWV1ofZ0o381Mdk4ZqQxX
---- END SSH2 PUBLIC KEY ----

# ssh-keygen -e -f id_rsa.pub
---- BEGIN SSH2 PUBLIC KEY ----
Comment: "2048-bit RSA, converted by root@gvm10 from OpenSSH"
AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQDX+xNaEHcrJDM+e+Ro4oace/UITT3I0LKS6OJ3PO
caObuC4ltk5ohbuVCdu1BsyVMXcYu14x/eZKdylwaVWipKE2kE859ozNclHoq4BEbSRdWM
dDrBNHXZrhoHIS5AwbgPOepZLVwoe/y6F+LKbesGGMMUVL1FARGily9tg/XDX2riO8sZVj
LPNtDXfEg/TmAF119MQ4w054bpMxnqsmBNbv3vWQwrE7f8gN5eAOMCgRDUPF+EL1wFR9IW
tgnpEy1X5cOENuLCUBSi01pT8lgn/DGetnrn2UTQHXb+Bw9lZ9yI3OQTVKd7KeWa2j00lA
ZHWV1ofZ0o381Mdk4ZqQxX
---- END SSH2 PUBLIC KEY ----

I'd awaited to find my private key converted in the first case, not my public one! The man-page even states this would be the case, but it is not.
Comment 1 Thomas Schweikle 2018-12-19 21:17:20 AEDT 
Same for Debian, Fedora, FreeBSD, OpenBSD.
Comment 2 Damien Miller 2019-01-22 22:13:13 AEDT 
The -e flag only writes public keys. I've committed a clarification to the man page for this. What are you trying to convert to?
Comment 3 Damien Miller 2021-04-23 14:53:12 AEST 
closing resolved bugs as of 8.6p1 release