[Bug]: step certificate inspect on a p12 or pfx file results in error "invalid PEM block"

[YANSA23]

Steps to Reproduce

step certificate p12 cert.p12 certs/root_ca.crt secrets/root_ca_key

Your Environment

OS - Debian 13.3
step-ca Version - Smallstep CA/0.29.0 (linux/amd64)

Expected Behavior

Information in the certificate file

Actual Behavior

"contains an invalid PEM block"

Additional Context

created p12/pfx with "step certificate p12 certificate.p12 certs/root_ca.crt secrets/root_ca_key"

Contributing

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[hslatman]

Hey @YANSA23, at the moment this is expected behavior.

step certificate inspect is meant for file formats that are known to contain only certificate (bundles), whereas a .p12 can contain a private key, as well as other types of objects, such as encrypted blobs. We're open to suggestions and contributions to handle this use case in a user-friendly, but correct manner.