Mac OS X security export won't accept passphrase

Question

I'm trying to export some items on my keychain like this:

hostname:~ username$ security export -k login.keychain -t all -P "passphrase"

but I always get this error:

security: SecKeychainItemExport: Passphrase is required for import/export

What gives?

clarification: I'm logged in via SSH.

Answer 1

If your passphrase has any odd symbols your shell is swallowing, try using single quotes instead of double to prevent interpolation.

security export -k login.keychain -t all -P 'passphrase'

Answer 2

This is just broken, IMO. 'security export' behaves very badly if you try to export private keys and you log in with SSH. Same commands work when you log in from the GUI. Is this on purpose?

Depending on what you need, you might be able to work around it with 'security find-certificates' or 'security export -t certs'. It all works as long as you don't export a private key.