php-jwt: "OpenSSL unable to verify data..."

I am unable to get passed this error when calling JWT::decode():

Uncaught exception 'DomainException' with message 'OpenSSL unable to verify data: error:0906D06C:PEM routines:PEM_read_bio:no start line

Error comes from this code piece:

$private_key = "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\n[VERY_LONG_PRIVATE_KEY]\n-----END PRIVATE KEY-----\n";
$openssl_private_key = openssl_pkey_get_private($private_key);
$details = openssl_pkey_get_details($openssl_private_key);
$public_key = $details['key'];
$token = 'LONG_TOKEN_KEY';

return JWT::decode($token, $public_key, array('RS256'));

I have tried using both $private_key and $public_key as the second argument of decode(). the $public_key is the only one that gets me this far. $private_key leaves me with:

openssl_verify(): supplied key param cannot be coerced into a public key...

After hours of googling, there doesn’t seem to be anyone else that have this problem. Let alone experience it. How can I solve this?

About this issue

Original URL
State: closed
Created 8 years ago
Reactions: 1
Comments: 18

Most upvoted comments

You must use private key for encode and public key for decode. The keys you can generate on command line like this:

openssl genrsa -out private.key 1024
openssl rsa -in private.key -pubout > pubkey.key

Here is an example from start page with RS256

<?php
require('jwt/JWT.php');

$privateKey = <<<EOD
-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
MIICXAIBAAKBgQC8kGa1pSjbSYZVebtTRBLxBz5H4i2p/llLCrEeQhta5kaQu/Rn
vuER4W8oDH3+3iuIYW4VQAzyqFpwuzjkDI+17t5t0tyazyZ8JXw+KgXTxldMPEL9
5+qVhgXvwtihXC1c5oGbRlEDvDF6Sa53rcFVsYJ4ehde/zUxo6UvS7UrBQIDAQAB
AoGAb/MXV46XxCFRxNuB8LyAtmLDgi/xRnTAlMHjSACddwkyKem8//8eZtw9fzxz
bWZ/1/doQOuHBGYZU8aDzzj59FZ78dyzNFoF91hbvZKkg+6wGyd/LrGVEB+Xre0J
Nil0GReM2AHDNZUYRv+HYJPIOrB0CRczLQsgFJ8K6aAD6F0CQQDzbpjYdx10qgK1
cP59UHiHjPZYC0loEsk7s+hUmT3QHerAQJMZWC11Qrn2N+ybwwNblDKv+s5qgMQ5
5tNoQ9IfAkEAxkyffU6ythpg/H0Ixe1I2rd0GbF05biIzO/i77Det3n4YsJVlDck
ZkcvY3SK2iRIL4c9yY6hlIhs+K9wXTtGWwJBAO9Dskl48mO7woPR9uD22jDpNSwe
k90OMepTjzSvlhjbfuPN1IdhqvSJTDychRwn1kIJ7LQZgQ8fVz9OCFZ/6qMCQGOb
qaGwHmUK6xzpUbbacnYrIM6nLSkXgOAwv7XXCojvY614ILTK3iXiLBOxPu5Eu13k
eUz9sHyD6vkgZzjtxXECQAkp4Xerf5TGfQXGXhxIX52yH+N2LtujCdkQZjXAsGdm
B2zNzvrlgRmgBrklMTrMYgm1NPcW+bRLGcwgW2PTvNM=
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
EOD;

$publicKey = <<<EOD
-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----
MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQC8kGa1pSjbSYZVebtTRBLxBz5H
4i2p/llLCrEeQhta5kaQu/RnvuER4W8oDH3+3iuIYW4VQAzyqFpwuzjkDI+17t5t
0tyazyZ8JXw+KgXTxldMPEL95+qVhgXvwtihXC1c5oGbRlEDvDF6Sa53rcFVsYJ4
ehde/zUxo6UvS7UrBQIDAQAB
-----END PUBLIC KEY-----
EOD;

$token = array(
    "iss" => "example.org",
    "aud" => "example.com",
    "iat" => 1356999524,
    "nbf" => 1357000000
);

$jwt = JWT::encode($token, $privateKey, 'RS256');
echo 'encode:<pre>' . print_r($jwt, true) . '</pre>';

$decoded = JWT::decode($jwt, $publicKey, array('RS256'));

/*
 NOTE: This will now be an object instead of an associative array. To get
 an associative array, you will need to cast it as such:
*/

$decoded_array = (array) $decoded;
echo 'decode:<pre>' . print_r($decoded_array, true) . '</pre>';
?>

HenryNe on Nov 4, 2016

Here is an example with private key only:

<?php
require('jwt/JWT.php');

$privateKey = <<<EOD
-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----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-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
EOD;

// Extract public key from private key
$res = openssl_get_privatekey($privateKey);
$details = openssl_pkey_get_details($res);
$publicKey = $details['key'];
echo "PublicKey:\n" . print_r($publicKey, true) . "\n";

$token = array(
    "iss" => "example.org",
    "aud" => "example.com",
    "iat" => 1356999524,
    "nbf" => 1357000000
);

$jwt = JWT::encode($token, $privateKey, 'RS256');
echo "encode:\n" . print_r($jwt, true) . "\n";

$decoded = JWT::decode($jwt, $publicKey, array('RS256'));

/*
 NOTE: This will now be an object instead of an associative array. To get
 an associative array, you will need to cast it as such:
*/

$decoded_array = (array) $decoded;
echo "decode:\n" . print_r($decoded_array, true) . "\n";
?>

openssl_pkey_get_private works also as replacement for openssl_get_privatekey.

This is the output from example:

PublicKey:
-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----
MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQC8kGa1pSjbSYZVebtTRBLxBz5H
4i2p/llLCrEeQhta5kaQu/RnvuER4W8oDH3+3iuIYW4VQAzyqFpwuzjkDI+17t5t
0tyazyZ8JXw+KgXTxldMPEL95+qVhgXvwtihXC1c5oGbRlEDvDF6Sa53rcFVsYJ4
ehde/zUxo6UvS7UrBQIDAQAB
-----END PUBLIC KEY-----

encode:
eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiJ9.eyJpc3MiOiJleGFtcGxlLm9yZyIsImF1ZCI6ImV4YW1wbGUuY29tIiwiaWF0IjoxMzU2OTk5NTI0LCJuYmYiOjEzNTcwMDAwMDB9.CxbrdOFLiibtEfbYXz4W6bf0wQ_MwMnOjE2bYawWa97hIO9jqxRg7PxiQBrQbUkT_7LpkW8ka-GqMgZzVGnPBFZb8AUN8zrdPLxf8v7WheRYIGNWHwU1em6f8O17pln3C6jzY2k7WA66aFNazfcCWFBEa7wD_DiCXi4GF_3vPpA
decode:
Array
(
    [iss] => example.org
    [aud] => example.com
    [iat] => 1356999524
    [nbf] => 1357000000
)

Testet on PHP Version 5.3.17 and 5.5.14 (edit: same key from example above) (edit 2: Signature is SHA1, not SHA256. Signature will nor Verified on jwt.io, see some days later.)

HenryNe on Dec 14, 2016