Tools

OpenSSL Cheat Sheet

Print-ready cheat sheet for OpenSSL, organized for fast lookup, study, and desk-side use

Source
OpenSSL Documentation (openssl.org)
License
MIT
Updated
2026-03-27

Sample

What's in this cheat sheet

  • Certificates
  • Key Generation
  • CSR
  • Self-Signed
  • Verification
  • Encryption
  • Hashing
  • S/MIME
  • Debugging
  • Common Patterns

View Certificate Details

openssl x509 -in cert.pem -text -noout
openssl x509 -in cert.pem -subject -noout
openssl x509 -in cert.pem -dates -noout
openssl x509 -in cert.pem -issuer -noout

Convert Formats

# PEM to DER
openssl x509 -in cert.pem -outform DER \
    -out cert.der
# DER to PEM
openssl x509 -in cert.der -inform DER \
    -out cert.pem

Common Formats

PEMBase64-encoded, `-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----`
DERBinary format, compact
PFX / P12PKCS#12 bundle (cert + key + chain)
CRT / CERCertificate file (usually PEM or DER)

Download the full cheat sheet for all sections, formatted for print

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