openssl passphrase-options

Pass phrase options 

openssl command

SYNOPSIS

openssl command [options ...] [parameters ...]

DESCRIPTION

Several OpenSSL commands accept password arguments, typically using -passin and -passout for input and output passwords respectively. These allow the password to be obtained from a variety of sources. Both of these options take a single argument whose format is described below. If no password argument is given and a password is required then the user is prompted to enter one: this will typically be read from the current terminal with echoing turned off.

Note that character encoding may be relevant.

Options

Pass Phrase Option Arguments

Pass phrase arguments can be formatted as follows 
pass:password 

The actual password is password. Since the password is visible to utilities (like the "ps" command under Unix) this form should only be used where security is not important.

env:var 

Obtain the password from the environment variable var. Since the environment of other processes is visible on certain platforms (e.g. 'ps' under certain Unix OSes), this option should be used with caution.

file:pathname 

The first line of pathname is the password. If the same pathname argument is supplied to -passin and -passout arguments then the first line will be used for the input password, and the next line will be used for the output password. pathname need not refer to a regular file: it could for example refer to a device or named pipe.

fd:number 

Read the password from the file descriptor number. This can be used to send the data via a pipe for example.

stdin 

Read the password from standard input.

NOTES

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2000-2020 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.

Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or here: OpenSSL.

AVAILABILITY

PTC MKS Toolkit for System Administrators
PTC MKS Toolkit for Developers
PTC MKS Toolkit for Interoperability
PTC MKS Toolkit for Professional Developers
PTC MKS Toolkit for Professional Developers 64-Bit Edition
PTC MKS Toolkit for Enterprise Developers
PTC MKS Toolkit for Enterprise Developers 64-Bit Edition

PTC MKS Toolkit 10.5 Documentation Build 40.