slackhq/nebula · error

ErrPrivateKeyEncrypted

ErrPrivateKeyEncrypted

Error message

private key must be decrypted

What it means

Sentinel error ErrPrivateKeyEncrypted returned by the PEM unmarshaller in pem.go when the PEM block's banner is EncryptedEd25519PrivateKeyBanner or EncryptedECDSAP256PrivateKeyBanner. It means the bytes contain an encrypted private key that must be decrypted (with its passphrase) before it can be used; the raw unmarshal path refuses to handle it.

Source

Thrown at cert/errors.go:21

import (
	"errors"
	"fmt"
)

var (
	ErrBadFormat                  = errors.New("bad wire format")
	ErrRootExpired                = errors.New("root certificate is expired")
	ErrExpired                    = errors.New("certificate is expired")
	ErrNotCA                      = errors.New("certificate is not a CA")
	ErrNotSelfSigned              = errors.New("certificate is not self-signed")
	ErrBlockListed                = errors.New("certificate is in the block list")
	ErrFingerprintMismatch        = errors.New("certificate fingerprint did not match")
	ErrSignatureMismatch          = errors.New("certificate signature did not match")
	ErrInvalidPublicKey           = errors.New("invalid public key")
	ErrInvalidPrivateKey          = errors.New("invalid private key")
	ErrPublicPrivateCurveMismatch = errors.New("public key does not match private key curve")
	ErrPublicPrivateKeyMismatch   = errors.New("public key and private key are not a pair")
	ErrPrivateKeyEncrypted        = errors.New("private key must be decrypted")
	ErrCaNotFound                 = errors.New("could not find ca for the certificate")
	ErrUnknownVersion             = errors.New("certificate version unrecognized")
	ErrCertPubkeyPresent          = errors.New("certificate has unexpected pubkey present")
	ErrCurveMismatch              = errors.New("certificate curve does not match CA")

	ErrInvalidPEMBlock                   = errors.New("input did not contain a valid PEM encoded block")
	ErrInvalidPEMCertificateBanner       = errors.New("bytes did not contain a proper certificate banner")
	ErrInvalidPEMX25519PublicKeyBanner   = errors.New("bytes did not contain a proper X25519 public key banner")
	ErrInvalidPEMX25519PrivateKeyBanner  = errors.New("bytes did not contain a proper X25519 private key banner")
	ErrInvalidPEMEd25519PublicKeyBanner  = errors.New("bytes did not contain a proper Ed25519 public key banner")
	ErrInvalidPEMEd25519PrivateKeyBanner = errors.New("bytes did not contain a proper Ed25519 private key banner")

	ErrNoPeerStaticKey = errors.New("no peer static key was present")
	ErrNoPayload       = errors.New("provided payload was empty")

	ErrMissingDetails  = errors.New("certificate did not contain details")
	ErrEmptySignature  = errors.New("empty signature")
	ErrEmptyRawDetails = errors.New("empty rawDetails not allowed")

View on GitHub (pinned to dd8f660c0a)

Solutions

1. Decrypt the key first via the passphrase-based decrypt function (e.g. DecryptAndUnmarshalSigningPrivateKey)
2. Supply the passphrase interactively or via NEBULA_CA_PASSPHRASE where the CLI supports it
3. Regenerate an unencrypted key if the encrypted form is unwanted

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at cert/errors.go:21 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of slackhq/nebula@dd8f660c0a (2026-09-03). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1fe6a3e465166f32. Report an issue: GitHub.