How to convert OpenSSH ED25519 private key to the OpenSSH format that MySQL Workbench uses?

Question

My OpenSSH ED25519 private key file has the following structure:

-----BEGIN OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
-----END OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----

MySQL workbench will not make a connection when the file is in this format the format required is described in this answer:

How can I make this conversion (peferably with a bash command)? I do not wish to create the key pair again and place the public key in 10's of different places.

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 20 '24 at 18:17

4

Unfortunately it cannot be done because ED25519 and RSA are completely different types of keys. You cannot convert between them.

The only solution is to create a new key pair. To create on that works with MySQL use:

ssh-keygen -m PEM -t rsa -b 8192

answered Jan 20 '24 at 18:17

Juuso Nykänen

171

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 20 '24 at 19:24

From the post Openssh Private Key to RSA Private Key :

You have an OpenSSH format key and want a PEM format key. It is not intuitive to me, but the suggested way to convert is by changing the password for the key and writing it in a different format at the same time.

The command looks like this:
ssh-keygen -p -N "" -m pem -f /path/to/key
It will change the file in place, so make a backup of your current key just in case. -N "" will set the passphrase as none. I haven't tested this with a passphrase.

The public key should be fine as is.

For full explanation of the above command, see the -m option here: https://man.openbsd.org/ssh-keygen#m

How to convert OpenSSH ED25519 private key to the OpenSSH format that MySQL Workbench uses?

2 Answers2