Ethereum transaction RangeError: private key length is invalid

Question

I'm running a tutorial on how to sign an ethereum transaction programmatically, and I'm getting the following error:

RangeError: private key length is invalid

This is the code:

var Web3 = require('web3');
var web3 = new Web3(new 
Web3.providers.HttpProvider('https://ropsten.infura.io/'));
var util = require('ethereumjs-util');
var tx = require('ethereumjs-tx');

var privateKey = '0x...';
var publicKey = util.bufferToHex(util.privateToPublic(privateKey));

The error is on the last line, that attempts to get the public key from the private key.

My private key is an alphanumeric string with a length of 64 characters. From all I can see it's the correct length.

What am I missing?

Answer 1

According to the docs util.privateToPublic() expects a buffer. Try feeding it something more like:

new Buffer(privateKey.substring(2,66), 'hex')

Answer 2

try to remove the 0x from the privatekey

privKey = privKey.substring(2)

I'm not sure. Different ethereum libs have different key rules.

EthersJS for example enforces 0x across the board where others might not.