Everything runs on your machine — your input is processed right here in your browser and never uploaded to any server.

Key Passphrase Remover

or drop your .key / .pem file anywhere on this card

How it works

1

Paste your private key, or drop the .key/.pem file onto the card.

2

Enter the current passphrase if the key is encrypted.

3

Choose "Remove passphrase" (for servers) or "Set / change passphrase" (for backups), then click the button.

4

Download the converted key and point your server or backup at it.

About this tool

A passphrase-protected private key is great for backups and terrible for servers: Nginx or Apache will sit at boot waiting for someone to type it. Removing the passphrase — the openssl pkey ritual — is a one-click job here, and it runs entirely in your browser, which is the only acceptable place to handle a private key online.

The tool reads PKCS#8 (encrypted or not), traditional RSA and SEC1 EC formats, and outputs a clean PKCS#8 PEM. It also works in reverse: paste a plain key, choose "Set / change passphrase", and get an AES-256 encrypted copy for safe keeping.

100% private

The key and every passphrase you type are processed in this tab’s memory only — nothing is uploaded, logged or stored. Do it offline if you like: load the page, disconnect, convert.

Frequently asked questions

Is it safe to run my server with an unencrypted key?

It is the industry norm — almost every production web server key is passphrase-less, protected by file permissions (chmod 600, owned by root) instead. The passphrase mainly protects keys at rest in backups and transfers; keep an encrypted copy for those.

Which encryption does "set passphrase" use?

PKCS#8 with AES-256-CBC — the same thing openssl pkey produces by default on modern versions, and readable by every mainstream server and tool.

It says my passphrase is wrong but I’m sure it’s right.

Watch for keyboard-layout differences and copy-pasted trailing whitespace. Also note the legacy "Proc-Type: 4,ENCRYPTED" RSA format and modern encrypted PKCS#8 derive keys differently — this tool handles both, but a wrong character fails identically in each.

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