Exception when using privateEncrypt/privateDecrypt with certain encrypted keys - node.js

Question

Steps:
Create an public/private RSA key-pair by using either aes-128-ecb or
aes-128-ocb
Attempt to decrypt/encrypt something
Code:
const crypto = require("crypto");
let {privateKey, publicKey} = crypto.generateKeyPairSync("rsa", {
modulusLength: 2048,
publicKeyEncoding: {
type: "spki",
format: "pem"
},
privateKeyEncoding: {
type: 'pkcs8',
format: 'pem',
cipher: "aes-128-ecb",
passphrase: "abcdef"
}
});
const encryptedString = crypto.privateEncrypt({
key: privateKey,
passphrase: "abcdef"
}, Buffer.from("The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog")).toString("base64");
const decryptedString = crypto.publicDecrypt(publicKey, Buffer.from(encryptedString, "base64")).toString();
console.log(`Encrypted: ${encryptedString}`);
console.log(`Decrypted: ${decryptedString}`);
I can successfully encryption/decryption with the specified ciphers but it shows following error
node:internal/crypto/cipher:79
return method(data, format, type, passphrase, buffer, padding, oaepHash,
^
Error: error:060CC07A:digital envelope routines:EVP_CIPHER_asn1_to_param:cipher parameter error
at Object.privateEncrypt (node:internal/crypto/cipher:79:12)
at Object.<anonymous> (/home/pancho7532/Documents/AnotherBotXDDXD/rsaTest.js:25:32)
at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1101:14)
at Object.Module._extensions..js (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1153:10)
at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:981:32)
at Function.Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:822:12)
at Function.executeUserEntryPoint [as runMain] (node:internal/modules/run_main:81:12)
at node:internal/main/run_main_module:17:47 {
opensslErrorStack: [
'error:060CC07A:digital envelope routines:EVP_CIPHER_asn1_to_param:cipher parameter error'
],
library: 'digital envelope routines',
function: 'EVP_CIPHER_asn1_to_param',
reason: 'cipher parameter error',
code: 'ERR_OSSL_EVP_CIPHER_PARAMETER_ERROR'
}

Answer 1

It took me a while to work this out, but seems to be an issue with the cipher property. Try using a different cipher.
I tried aes-256-ecb, aes-128-ecb and bf-ecb, none of them worked, then I tried aes-256-cbc, aes-128-cbc and bf-cbc and they all worked. I am not sure why but privateEncrypt() only seems to like all the same ciphers as generateKeyPairSync() does, specifically the "ecb" type.
With some Googling, it seems aes-128-cbc is generally considered better than aes-128-ecb, so maybe that is preferable anyway.