Extract text from Strong name key files (SNK)
To convert SNK Key files to another format, you need Visual Studio or other Developer software.
To convert other file formats to the "Cryptographic Key File" file type, you need software like Visual Studio or a similar tool.
The .snk format is a proprietary cryptographic container file primarily used as a Strong Name Key in the Microsoft .NET Framework. Software developers use these files to digitally sign compiled assemblies (DLL or EXE files), ensuring version uniqueness and preventing unauthorized tampering. Additionally, Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) uses .snk files to safely back up symmetric encryption keys for Report Servers.
These files are highly specialized and typically generated or managed using the Strong Name Tool (sn.exe), a command-line utility included in Microsoft Visual Studio.
The main disadvantage of the .snk format is its strict limitation to the Microsoft ecosystem. It uses a raw, undocumented binary representation of RSA public and private key pairs. Standard text editors display gibberish, and modern cross-platform development environments cannot natively read this legacy format.
Developers frequently need to convert .snk files to PFX (Personal Information Exchange) or PEM targets to use the cryptographic keys in CI/CD pipelines, web servers, or non-Windows operating systems. When migrating to PFX, you must wrap the raw key in a certificate and secure it with a password.
This file format is exceptionally difficult to open or convert because it is a closed, binary blob format. Standard online converters fail to process it because they expect open standards like ASN.1 or PKCS#8, not Microsoft's proprietary CryptoAPI structures.
Convert.Guru analyzes your SNK file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted P8, PUBLIC, PCPKEY and PFX files.
If you want to convert SNK file to PFX, BASE64, HEX, BIN, ENC, CRYPT, AES, DES, RSA, PGP, GPG or ASC, you can use Visual Studio or similar software from the "Cryptographic Key Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert CER, BIN, PEM, DER, KEY, P7S, PFX, ENC, P12, BASE64, P7B or HEX files to SNK, try Visual Studio or another comparable tool in the "Cryptographic Key Storage" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our SNK converter.