Cancel OpenSSL RSA key generation via command line

[mbigras]

When generating an RSA key with the OpenSSL cli you are prompted to enter your passphrase.

With most command-line interfaces pressing C-d or C-c will exit the process; however, with openssl it seems like it's impossible to exit the program once you've started the key generation process.

Shown below is a session where I'm trying C-c and C-d, only after entering foobar twice do I exit:

$ openssl genrsa -aes128 -out fd.key 2048
Generating RSA private key, 2048 bit long modulus
.........+++
.................................................+++
e is 65537 (0x10001)
Enter pass phrase for fd.key:
73496:error:28069065:lib(40):UI_set_result:result too small:/BuildRoot/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/OpenSSL098/OpenSSL098-64/src/crypto/ui/ui_lib.c:850:You must type in 4 to 1023 characters
Enter pass phrase for fd.key:
73496:error:28069065:lib(40):UI_set_result:result too small:/BuildRoot/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/OpenSSL098/OpenSSL098-64/src/crypto/ui/ui_lib.c:850:You must type in 4 to 1023 characters
Enter pass phrase for fd.key:
Enter pass phrase for fd.key:
Enter pass phrase for fd.key:
Enter pass phrase for fd.key:
Enter pass phrase for fd.key:
Enter pass phrase for fd.key:
Verifying - Enter pass phrase for fd.key:

• How do I exit the genrsa openssl command?

See this security stackexchange question for more details

[richsalz]

Use SIGQUIT (control-backslash) instead of SIGINT (control-c)?

On the other hand, typing control-c works for me just fine.

[mbigras]

I'm running macOS 10.12.1 with OpenSSL 0.9.8zh 14 Jan 2016

It works if quit immediately but if you try to quit after pressing your first enter openssl doesn't seem to respond. Attached is a gif.

[richsalz]

okay, that's a bug in that very old and unsupported openssl version. tty reading has had a number of fixes.

[mbigras]

Also confirmed with OpenSSL 1.0.1 14 Mar 2012. Which version was it fixed in?

[richsalz]

I don't know. Maybe read the CHANGES or git log files? But 1.0.1 from five years ago is also buggy.