NodeJS & SSL - "bad password read"

Question

Node is failing to create a secure context for SSL communications.

Specifically, I'm trying to get remote notifications to work on iOS. I use a module, called node-apn which throws this error:

Error: error:0906A068:PEM routines:PEM_do_header:bad password read
at Error (native)
at Object.createSecureContext (_tls_common.js:108:19)
at Object.exports.connect (_tls_wrap.js:852:21)
at apnSocket (/home/Slurp/node_modules/apn/lib/socket.js:56:19)
at Connection.<anonymous> (/home/Slurp/node_modules/apn/lib/connection.js:188:17)
at _fulfilled (/home/Slurp/node_modules/apn/node_modules/q/q.js:834:54)
at self.promiseDispatch.done (/home/Slurp/node_modules/apn/node_modules/q/q.js:863:30)
at Promise.promise.promiseDispatch (/home/Slurp/node_modules/apn/node_modules/q/q.js:796:13)

This seems to be a generic error though, and isn't really related to APN specifically.

Solution 1

This is because you've specified a passphrase when generating the cert. This is a password that must be supplied by anyone wanting to use it.

Adding a passphrase field to the credentials solves the problem.

var credentials = {
    key: fs.readFileSync('XXX.key', 'utf8'),
    cert: fs.readFileSync('XXX.crt', 'utf8'),
    passphrase: 'XXXX'
}

var httpsServer = https.createServer(credentials, app);

Solution 2

The following command will generate an unencrypted key, so you won't need to provide a passphrase:

openssl rsa -in yourKey.key -out newKey.key

This command will prompt you for the passphrase.

Comments

[Sravan]

Is this passphrase used to create the .pem or '.crt' files?

[Gang Su]

I think it was used to create the .crt file