I'm not sure I know how to do this correctly: I lack of experience both with openssl C API and writing python modules in C. It may be more flexible, but unless the key is protected/crypted somehow, one would need a string or bytes buffer to hold the key when creating the private key object: not much secure. Don't you think that it should be addressed in a separate issue? 2015-07-09 15:48 GMT+02:00 Christian Heimes <report@bugs.python.org>: > > Christian Heimes added the comment: > > I'd rather introduce new types and have the function accept either a > string (for path to fiel) or a X509 object and a PKey object. It's more > flexible and secure. With a private key type we can properly support crypto > ENGINEs and wipe memory when the object gets deallocated. > > ---------- > > _______________________________________ > Python tracker <report@bugs.python.org> > <http://bugs.python.org/issue16487> > _______________________________________ >