Jenkins start-up fails after pointing to ssl cert and key - jenkins

Question

Jenkins 2.73.3
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_151-b12)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.151-b12, mixed mode)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7.4 (Maipo)
The SSL cert and keys:
[root#l5109p ssl]# ls -lrt /etc/security/ssl/
-rw-r-----. 1 jenkins jenkins 2894 Nov 27 09:17 jenkins_wildcard.sss.se.com.cert.pem
-rw-r-----. 1 jenkins jenkins 1766 Nov 27 09:18 jenkins_wildcard.sss.se.com.key.pem
In the /etc/sysconfig/jenkins, I have added the following entry:
JENKINS_ARGS="--httpsPort=8443 --httpsCertificate=/etc/security/ssl/jenkins_wildcard.sss.se.com.cert.pem --httpsPrivateKey=/etc/security/ssl/jenkins_wildcard.sss.se.com.key.pem"
On starting the jenkins service, it fails with the following error:
Running from: /usr/lib/jenkins/jenkins.war
Nov 27, 2017 9:42:17 AM Main deleteWinstoneTempContents
WARNING: Failed to delete the temporary Winstone file /tmp/winstone/jenkins.war
Nov 27, 2017 9:42:17 AM org.eclipse.jetty.util.log.Log initialized
INFO: Logging initialized #393ms to org.eclipse.jetty.util.log.JavaUtilLog
Nov 27, 2017 9:42:17 AM winstone.Logger logInternal
INFO: Beginning extraction from war file
Nov 27, 2017 9:42:17 AM org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ContextHandler setContextPath
WARNING: Empty contextPath
Nov 27, 2017 9:42:17 AM winstone.Logger logInternal
INFO: Winstone shutdown successfully
java.io.IOException: Failed to start a listener: winstone.HttpsConnectorFactory
at winstone.Launcher.spawnListener(Launcher.java:209)
at winstone.Launcher.<init>(Launcher.java:150)
at winstone.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:354)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)
at Main._main(Main.java:294)
at Main.main(Main.java:132)
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Not B64 encoded
at org.eclipse.jetty.util.B64Code.decode(B64Code.java:428)
at org.eclipse.jetty.util.B64Code.decode(B64Code.java:391)
at winstone.AbstractSecuredConnectorFactory.readPEMRSAPrivateKey(AbstractSecuredConnectorFactory.java:131)
at winstone.AbstractSecuredConnectorFactory.configureSsl(AbstractSecuredConnectorFactory.java:75)
at winstone.HttpsConnectorFactory.start(HttpsConnectorFactory.java:41)
at winstone.Launcher.spawnListener(Launcher.java:207)
... 8 more
Nov 27, 2017 9:42:17 AM winstone.Logger logInternal
SEVERE: Container startup failed
java.io.IOException: Failed to start a listener: winstone.HttpsConnectorFactory
at winstone.Launcher.spawnListener(Launcher.java:209)
at winstone.Launcher.<init>(Launcher.java:150)
at winstone.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:354)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)
at Main._main(Main.java:294)
at Main.main(Main.java:132)
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Not B64 encoded
at org.eclipse.jetty.util.B64Code.decode(B64Code.java:428)
at org.eclipse.jetty.util.B64Code.decode(B64Code.java:391)
at winstone.AbstractSecuredConnectorFactory.readPEMRSAPrivateKey(AbstractSecuredConnectorFactory.java:131)
at winstone.AbstractSecuredConnectorFactory.configureSsl(AbstractSecuredConnectorFactory.java:75)
at winstone.HttpsConnectorFactory.start(HttpsConnectorFactory.java:41)
at winstone.Launcher.spawnListener(Launcher.java:207)
... 8 more

Answer 1

The log says the files are not in Base64.
Check these files, they should begin by one them :
-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
And their content after the --- should be in Base64