OPENSSL-PASSPHRASE-OPTIONS(1)

OPENSSL-PASSPHRASE-OPTIONS(1) | OpenSSL | OPENSSL-PASSPHRASE-OPTIONS(1)

# NAME

openssl-passphrase-options - Pass phrase options

# 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, please see passphrase-encoding(7).

# 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 'ps' 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
  Reads the password from the specified file pathname, which can be a regular file, device, or named pipe. Only the first line, up to the newline character, is read from the stream.

  If the same pathname argument is supplied to both -passin and -passout arguments, the first line will be used for the input password, and the next line will be used for the output password.

fd: number
  Reads the password from the file descriptor number. This can be useful for sending data via a pipe, for example. The same line handling as described for file: applies to passwords read from file descriptors.

  fd: is not supported on Windows.

stdin
  Reads the password from standard input. The same line handling as described for file: applies to passwords read from standard input.

# COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2000-2024 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 at <https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.

2026-04-07 | 3.5.6