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Fix 'error in libcrypto' Error Reading Private SSH Key

Provides an easy fix to the SSH error: 'error in libcrypto'

Max Rohde

Max Rohde

— 1 min read
Fix 'error in libcrypto' Error Reading Private SSH Key
The Enter key is the Key

Today I 'wasted' a good hour or so on a mysterious issue with an SSH private key.

Whenever I tried to read it with ssh-keygen or ssh I would receive this not very useful error message:

Load key "...": error in libcrypto

The fix in my case as as simple as it was infuriating.

I simply needed to add a newline to the end of the private key file 🤯

So specifically I needed to add a newline after `—END OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-—`

-----BEGIN OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----
[gibberish]
-----END OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----
The VERY Important New Line

If this does not fix it for you, I recommend having a browse around the following GitHub issue:

openssl / error in libcrypto, loading ssh key from an environment variable

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