xmlsec.Error: (1, 'cannot load key') while loading the private key

[ramanareddy438]

Hi Team,

I have a X509 private in a file and trying to use the below code to load the private key. However i am getting the xmlsec.Error: (1, 'cannot load key'). I tried multiple ways. nothing is working and more over the error message is not detailed enough to try other options.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thank you.

with open('private_key.pem', 'rb') as key_file:
    key_data = key_file.read()
xmlsec.Key.from_memory(key_data, xmlsec.constants.KeyDataFormatPem)

My PEM file format is as shown below:

-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
TUlkjshduahdajsduaydjaudhswmb7ajwesdajhassdadasdsdaeddasdaeqdea
TUlkjshduahdajsduaydjaudhswmb7ajwesdajhassdadasdsdaeddasdaeqdea
TUlkjshduahdajsduaydjaudhswmb7ajwesdajhassdadasdsdaeddasdaeqdea
TUlkjshduahdajsduaydjaudhswmb7ajwesdajhassdadasdsdaeddasdaeqdea
TUlkjshduahdajsduaydjaudhswmb7ajwesdajhassdadasdsdaeddasdaeqdea
TUlkjshduahdajsduaydjaudhswmb7ajwesdajhassdadasdsdaeddasdaeqdea
TUlkjshduahdajsduaydjaudhswmb7ajwesdajhassdadasdsdaeddasdaeqdea
TUlkjshduahdajsduaydjaudhswmb7ajwesdajhassdadasdsdaeddasdaeqdea
TUlkjshduahdajsduaydjaudhswmb7ajwesdajhassdadasdsdaeddasdaeqdea
TUlkjshduahdajsduaydjaudhswmb7ajwesdajhassdadasdsdaeddasdaeqdea
TUlkjshduahdajsduaydjaudhswmb7ajwesdajhassdadasdsdaeddasdaeqdea
TUlkjshduahdajsduaydjaudhswmb7ajwesdajhassdadasdsdaeddasdaeqdea
TUlkjshduahdajsduaydjaudhswmb7ajwesdajhassdadasdsdaeddasdaeqdea
TUlkjshduahdajsduaydjaudhswmb7ajwesdajhassdadasdsdaeddasdaeqdea
asdadasd==
-----END PRIVATE KEY-----

[tpanum]

I am experiencing a similar issue. I have a .p12-certificate that I have transformed to x509 using OpenSSL.

$ openssl x509 -in cert.pem -text -noout runs without issues. However, I can't load the file with xmlsec.

[jimjag]

Are we sure that this is an issue w/ us and not the underlying lib itself?

[fenuks]

I also have this problem.

import xmlsec
xmlsec.Key.from_file('private.key', xmlsec.constants.KeyDataFormatCertPem, 'password')

raises Error: (1, 'cannot read key'). openssl rsa -in private.key -text
loads this key without problem.

Tested on ArchLinux, python 3.13.7, OpenSSL 3.6.0.

lxml==6.0.2
xmlsec==1.3.17

EDIT:
It's a mistake on my part. Using xmlsec.constants.KeyDataFormatPem fixes the
problem.