If you are trying to read a PKCS#1 RSA public key you run into trouble, because openssl wants the public key in X.509 style.The PKCS#1 RSA public key-----BEGIN RSA PUBLIC KEY-----MIIBCgKCAQEAgYxTW5Yj+5QiQtlPMnS9kqQ/HVp+T2KtmvShe68cm8luR7Dampmb[...]cbn6n2FsV91BlEnrAKq65PGJxcwcH5+aJwIDAQAB-----END RSA PUBLIC KEY-----.. is not readable while the X.509 style public key-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----MIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEAgYxTW5Yj+5QiQtlPMnS9[..]JwIDAQAB-----END PUBLIC KEY-----is. You can use an easy (and dirty) work around to read the PKCS#1 RSA anyway. The first few bytes of the X.509 style public key contain header information and can shamelessly be copied.In other words: Delete everything after the first 32 bytes from the above X.509 key (starting behind Q8A) and attach your PKCS#1 data, reformat to 64 bytes length and use it with openssl.Please note: The above example only works for 2048 bit length.Like I said - it's kind of dirty - but hey - if you're as desperate as I was.Michaela