Convert pem key to ssh-rsa format

To answer my own question, after posting on openssl mailing list got this:

Here is C code to convert from an OpenSSL public key to an OpenSSH public key. You can grab the code from this link and compile it yourself:

static unsigned char pSshHeader[11] = { 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x07, 0x73, 0x73, 0x68, 0x2D, 0x72, 0x73, 0x61};

static int SshEncodeBuffer(unsigned char *pEncoding, int bufferLen, unsigned char* pBuffer)
{
   int adjustedLen = bufferLen, index;
   if (*pBuffer & 0x80)
   {
      adjustedLen++;
      pEncoding[4] = 0;
      index = 5;
   }
   else
   {
      index = 4;
   }
   pEncoding[0] = (unsigned char) (adjustedLen >> 24);
   pEncoding[1] = (unsigned char) (adjustedLen >> 16);
   pEncoding[2] = (unsigned char) (adjustedLen >>  8);
   pEncoding[3] = (unsigned char) (adjustedLen      );
   memcpy(&pEncoding[index], pBuffer, bufferLen);
   return index + bufferLen;
}

int main(int argc, char**  argv)
{
   int iRet = 0;
   int nLen = 0, eLen = 0;
   int encodingLength = 0;
   int index = 0;
   unsigned char *nBytes = NULL, *eBytes = NULL;
   unsigned char* pEncoding = NULL;
   FILE* pFile = NULL;
   EVP_PKEY *pPubKey = NULL;
   RSA* pRsa = NULL;
   BIO *bio, *b64;

   ERR_load_crypto_strings(); 
   OpenSSL_add_all_algorithms();

   if (argc != 3)
   {
      printf("usage: %s public_key_file_name ssh_key_description\n", argv[0]);
      iRet = 1;
      goto error;
   }

   pFile = fopen(argv[1], "rt");
   if (!pFile)
   {
      printf("Failed to open the given file\n");
      iRet = 2;
      goto error;
   }

   pPubKey = PEM_read_PUBKEY(pFile, NULL, NULL, NULL);
   if (!pPubKey)
   {
      printf("Unable to decode public key from the given file: %s\n", ERR_error_string(ERR_get_error(), NULL));
      iRet = 3;
      goto error;
   }

   if (EVP_PKEY_type(pPubKey->type) != EVP_PKEY_RSA)
   {
      printf("Only RSA public keys are currently supported\n");
      iRet = 4;
      goto error;
   }

   pRsa = EVP_PKEY_get1_RSA(pPubKey);
   if (!pRsa)
   {
      printf("Failed to get RSA public key : %s\n", ERR_error_string(ERR_get_error(), NULL));
      iRet = 5;
      goto error;
   }

   // reading the modulus
   nLen = BN_num_bytes(pRsa->n);
   nBytes = (unsigned char*) malloc(nLen);
   BN_bn2bin(pRsa->n, nBytes);

   // reading the public exponent
   eLen = BN_num_bytes(pRsa->e);
   eBytes = (unsigned char*) malloc(eLen);
   BN_bn2bin(pRsa->e, eBytes);

   encodingLength = 11 + 4 + eLen + 4 + nLen;
   // correct depending on the MSB of e and N
   if (eBytes[0] & 0x80)
      encodingLength++;
   if (nBytes[0] & 0x80)
      encodingLength++;

   pEncoding = (unsigned char*) malloc(encodingLength);
   memcpy(pEncoding, pSshHeader, 11);

   index = SshEncodeBuffer(&pEncoding[11], eLen, eBytes);
   index = SshEncodeBuffer(&pEncoding[11 + index], nLen, nBytes);

   b64 = BIO_new(BIO_f_base64());
   BIO_set_flags(b64, BIO_FLAGS_BASE64_NO_NL);
   bio = BIO_new_fp(stdout, BIO_NOCLOSE);
   BIO_printf(bio, "ssh-rsa ");
   bio = BIO_push(b64, bio);
   BIO_write(bio, pEncoding, encodingLength);
   BIO_flush(bio);
   bio = BIO_pop(b64);
   BIO_printf(bio, " %s\n", argv[2]);
   BIO_flush(bio);
   BIO_free_all(bio);
   BIO_free(b64);

error:
   if (pFile)
      fclose(pFile);
   if (pRsa)
      RSA_free(pRsa);
   if (pPubKey)
      EVP_PKEY_free(pPubKey);
   if (nBytes)
      free(nBytes);
   if (eBytes)
      free(eBytes);
   if (pEncoding)
      free(pEncoding);

   EVP_cleanup();
   ERR_free_strings();
   return iRet;
}

FWIW, this BASH script will take a PEM- or DER-format X.509 certificate or OpenSSL public key file (also PEM format) as the first argument and disgorge an OpenSSH RSA public key. This expands upon @mkalkov's answer above. Requirements are cat, grep, tr, dd, xxd, sed, xargs, file, uuidgen, base64, openssl (1.0+), and of course bash. All except openssl (contains base64) are pretty much guaranteed to be part of the base install on any modern Linux system, except maybe xxd (which Fedora shows in the vim-common package). If anyone wants to clean it up and make it nicer, caveat lector.

#!/bin/bash
#
# Extract a valid SSH format public key from an X509 public certificate.
#

# Variables:
pubFile=$1
fileType="no"
pkEightTypeFile="$pubFile"
tmpFile="/tmp/`uuidgen`-pkEightTypeFile.pk8"

# See if a file was passed:
[ ! -f "$pubFile" ] && echo "Error, bad or no input file $pubFile." && exit 1

# If it is a PEM format X.509 public cert, set $fileType appropriately:
pemCertType="X$(file $pubFile | grep 'PEM certificate')"
[ "$pemCertType" != "X" ] && fileType="PEM"

# If it is an OpenSSL PEM-format PKCS#8-style public key, set $fileType appropriately:
pkEightType="X$(grep -e '-BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-' $pubFile)"
[ "$pkEightType" != "X" ] && fileType="PKCS"

# If this is a file we can't recognise, try to decode a (binary) DER-format X.509 cert:
if [ "$fileType" = "no" ]; then
        openssl x509 -in $pubFile -inform DER -noout
        derResult=$(echo $?)
        [ "$derResult" = "0" ] && fileType="DER"
fi

# Exit if not detected as a file we can use:
[ "$fileType" = "no" ] && echo "Error, input file not of type X.509 public certificate or OpenSSL PKCS#8-style public key (not encrypted)." && exit 1

# Convert the X.509 public cert to an OpenSSL PEM-format PKCS#8-style public key:
if [ "$fileType" = "PEM" -o "$fileType" = "DER" ]; then
        openssl x509 -in $pubFile -inform $fileType -noout -pubkey > $tmpFile
        pkEightTypeFile="$tmpFile"
fi

# Build the string:
# Front matter:
frontString="$(echo -en 'ssh-rsa ')"

# Encoded modulus and exponent, with appropriate pointers:
encodedModulus="$(cat $pkEightTypeFile | grep -v -e "----" | tr -d '\n' | base64 -d | dd bs=1 skip=32 count=257 status=none | xxd -p -c257 | sed s/^/00000007\ 7373682d727361\ 00000003\ 010001\ 00000101\ / | xxd -p -r | base64 -w0 )"

# Add a comment string based on the filename, just to be nice:
commentString=" $(echo $pubFile | xargs basename | sed -e 's/\.crt\|\.cer\|\.pem\|\.pk8\|\.der//')"

# Give the user a string:
echo $frontString $encodedModulus $commentString

# cleanup:
rm -f $tmpFile