Keep getting error:0906D06C:PEM routines:PEM_read_bio:no start line

Question

Going crazy trying to solve error on Node.js while trying to contact Xero API.

I've used a bunch of combinations of '.cer' and '.crt' and '.pem'.

I've followed the advice of a number of StackOverflow posters.

Node.js https pem error: error:0906D06C:PEM routines:PEM_read_bio:no start line

Error: error:0906D06C:PEM routines:PEM_read_bio:no start line
    at Error (native)
    at Sign.sign (crypto.js:327:26)
    at Xero.oa._createSignature (/Users/BeardedMac/projects/clause/clause-mean-stack/node_modules/xero/index.js:19:68)
    at exports.OAuth._getSignature (/Users/BeardedMac/projects/clause/clause-mean-stack/node_modules/xero/node_modules/oauth/lib/oauth.js:90:15)
    at exports.OAuth._prepareParameters (/Users/BeardedMac/projects/clause/clause-mean-stack/node_modules/xero/node_modules/oauth/lib/oauth.js:300:16)
    at exports.OAuth._performSecureRequest (/Users/BeardedMac/projects/clause/clause-mean-stack/node_modules/xero/node_modules/oauth/lib/oauth.js:309:31)
    at Xero.call (/Users/BeardedMac/projects/clause/clause-mean-stack/node_modules/xero/index.js:51:20)
    at /Users/BeardedMac/projects/clause/clause-mean-stack/routes/external.js:47:10
    at Layer.handle [as handle_request] (/Users/BeardedMac/projects/clause/clause-mean-stack/node_modules/express/lib/router/layer.js:95:5)
    at next (/Users/BeardedMac/projects/clause/clause-mean-stack/node_modules/express/lib/router/route.js:131:13)
    at Route.dispatch (/Users/BeardedMac/projects/clause/clause-mean-stack/node_modules/express/lib/router/route.js:112:3)
    at Layer.handle [as handle_request] (/Users/BeardedMac/projects/clause/clause-mean-stack/node_modules/express/lib/router/layer.js:95:5)
    at /Users/BeardedMac/projects/clause/clause-mean-stack/node_modules/express/lib/router/index.js:277:22
    at Function.process_params (/Users/BeardedMac/projects/clause/clause-mean-stack/node_modules/express/lib/router/index.js:330:12)
    at next (/Users/BeardedMac/projects/clause/clause-mean-stack/node_modules/express/lib/router/index.js:271:10)
    at expressInit (/Users/BeardedMac/projects/clause/clause-mean-stack/node_modules/express/lib/middleware/init.js:33:5)

Anyone out there have some insight?

The Xero API says it wants an X509 certificate...I'm not even making the call though.

Solution

You need a PEM-encoded key as the xero module merely calls out to node's built-in crypto module to sign some data. Those types of keys start with

-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

and end with

-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

with base64-encoded data in between.

You can generate such a key using the openssl command-line utility:

openssl genrsa -out privateKey.pem 2048

Then read privateKey.pem in node like:

var fs = require('fs');
var privateKey = fs.readFileSync('/path/to/privateKey.pem');

// pass `privateKey` as the RSA private key to the `xero` module ...