title: Amazon AWS EC2 - Getting a .cer file instead of .pem
body: <p>When i downloaded my private key file from Security Credentials, I got a .cer file instead of a .pem. I tried to ssh to my ec2 instance using that but i am constantly getting:</p>
  
  <p>Bad passphrase, try again for pk-xxxxxxxxxxx</p>
  
  <p>Is it because i have a .cer file or because i need a pass phrase? I do not know what is a passphrase. I would really appreciate if i can be helped soon. I think i am confusing the the .cer files i get from X.509 with the file i need for ssh. But the problem is i never get .pem files, only .cer file </p>