powershellopensslcertificatepemder

powershell : "openssl x509 -in file.pem -text" equivalent

I must be using the wrong query because I cannot find how to do in Powershell what I do with a simple:

openssl x509 -in file.pem -text

I guess Powershell provides native commands to show certificate details but I'm struggling in finding how.

Solution

  • The [X509Certificate]::CreateFromCertFile() method reads Base64 encoded DER cert files natively and works in both Windows PowerShell and newer versions:

    $certFile = Get-Item path\to\file.pem

$xCert2Type = [System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Certificate2]
$Certificate = $xCert2Type::CreateFromCertFile($certFile.FullName) -as $xCert2Type

    The explicit conversion to [X509Certificate2] is deliberate - it exposes more metadata via properties and results in nicer default output formatting in PowerShell