Can't open .pem file in keychain access

Question

So I'm trying to set up an EC2 instance on AWS and I've created a key pair and downloaded the .pem file. However, when I try to open it I get the error message:

I've also read about entering the following in the terminal to work around the issue:

security import pub_key.pem -k ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain

but this doesn't work either (I get the following error message:

security: Error reading infile pub_key.pem: No such file or directory).

I've also tried just creating new key pairs but the problem persists.

Fireweed

I am having the same issue. Isn't this part of the idea of using the keychain to store certificates like this? I want to access my amazon key from other machines. – Darnel

Answer 1

The keychain extension changed with Sierra. Now it is login.keychain-db. You should navigate to where the pem key file is and use

security import pub_key.pem -k ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain-db

Yehudit

Thanks, Follow up question. Now what? If I want to use that stored key to connect, how would I do so? – Howsoever

Now if you want to connect it should be via ssh. You have two options: 1. If your instance has a public DNS name use the following command ssh -i /path/my-key-pair.pem my-instance-user-name@my-instance-public-dns-name 2. If your instance has an IPV6 address use the following command ssh -i /path/my-key-pair.pem my-instance-user-name@my-instance-IPv6-address. As it was already mentioned in another comment, the documentation is here – Yehudit

What is the point of putting the pen file in the keychain if you still have to specify it on the command line? That’s what I do now. – Howsoever

Answer 2

Make sure you navigate to terminal to where the pem key file actually is. Then use

security import pub_key.pem -k ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain

Skinny

If this answer helped please accept it as well. If not let me know why. – Skinny

Answer 3

The .pem file contains your private key used for establishing an ssh connection with an Amazon EC2 instance (or any Linux instance).

Do not open (double-click) the .pem file. Instead, you will use it with the ssh command to connect with your instance, eg:

ssh -i yourfile.pem [email protected]

See documentation: Connecting to Your Linux Instance Using SSH

Conservator

Using the PEM isn't the problem. Storing it somewhere safe is. That's what the Keychain is for. Why Keychain doesn't allow this is the question. – Darnel