asn1parse – Parser for DER or PEM encoded content

NAME

asn1parse– tool to parse and display ASN.1 fields of a DER or PEM encoded file.

SYNOPSIS

asn1parse file [-encode encoded-file]

DESCRIPTION

This tool is for verifying and displaying the encoding of DER or PEM encoded files. Useful for debugging. This tool first checks if the input file is in PEM format by examining the header and footer. If so, it converts it into equivalent binary file by applying base64 decoding on the body, removing the header and footer. The resulting file is parsed as per the DER (Distinguished Encoding Rules) and the successfully parsed elements are displayed on the screen.

With –encode option, it writes the parsed content into the specified file in DER format. This option can be used to convert a PEM format file into a DER format.

EXAMPLES

						asn1parse server.cer
					

Displays the ASN.1 fields of the DER encoded certificate file server.cer.

						asn1parse server.pem –encode server.cer
					

Displays the ASN.1 fields of the PEM encoded file server.pem and writes the content in DER format to the server.cer file.