diff --git a/qqq-backend-module-filesystem/src/main/java/com/kingsrook/qqq/backend/module/filesystem/sftp/actions/AbstractSFTPAction.java b/qqq-backend-module-filesystem/src/main/java/com/kingsrook/qqq/backend/module/filesystem/sftp/actions/AbstractSFTPAction.java
index 64a77632..f98582e8 100644
--- a/qqq-backend-module-filesystem/src/main/java/com/kingsrook/qqq/backend/module/filesystem/sftp/actions/AbstractSFTPAction.java
+++ b/qqq-backend-module-filesystem/src/main/java/com/kingsrook/qqq/backend/module/filesystem/sftp/actions/AbstractSFTPAction.java
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ import java.security.PublicKey;
 import java.security.spec.PKCS8EncodedKeySpec;
 import java.time.Instant;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.Base64;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.function.Consumer;
@@ -409,4 +410,19 @@ public class AbstractSFTPAction extends AbstractBaseFilesystemAction<SFTPDirEntr
 
       return (sftpClient);
    }
+
+
+
+   /***************************************************************************
+    ** take a string, which is the contents of a PEM file (like a private key)
+    ** - and if it has the -----BEGIN...----- and -----END...---- lines, strip
+    ** them away, and strip away any whitespace, and then base-64 decode it.
+    ***************************************************************************/
+   public static byte[] pemStringToDecodedBytes(String pemString)
+   {
+      String base64 = pemString.replaceAll("-----BEGIN (.*?)-----", "")
+         .replaceAll("-----END (.*?)-----", "")
+         .replaceAll("\\s", "");
+      return Base64.getDecoder().decode(base64);
+   }
 }
diff --git a/qqq-backend-module-filesystem/src/test/java/com/kingsrook/qqq/backend/module/filesystem/sftp/actions/SFTPTestConnectionActionTest.java b/qqq-backend-module-filesystem/src/test/java/com/kingsrook/qqq/backend/module/filesystem/sftp/actions/SFTPTestConnectionActionTest.java
index 5b023735..d569c2a9 100644
--- a/qqq-backend-module-filesystem/src/test/java/com/kingsrook/qqq/backend/module/filesystem/sftp/actions/SFTPTestConnectionActionTest.java
+++ b/qqq-backend-module-filesystem/src/test/java/com/kingsrook/qqq/backend/module/filesystem/sftp/actions/SFTPTestConnectionActionTest.java
@@ -24,8 +24,7 @@ package com.kingsrook.qqq.backend.module.filesystem.sftp.actions;
 
 import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
-import java.util.Base64;
-import java.util.stream.Collectors;
+import com.kingsrook.qqq.backend.core.utils.StringUtils;
 import com.kingsrook.qqq.backend.module.filesystem.sftp.BaseSFTPTest;
 import org.apache.commons.io.IOUtils;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
@@ -191,11 +190,7 @@ class SFTPTestConnectionActionTest extends BaseSFTPTest
    {
       try(InputStream resourceAsStream = getClass().getResourceAsStream("/test-only-key"))
       {
-         String pem = IOUtils.readLines(resourceAsStream, StandardCharsets.UTF_8).stream()
-            .filter(s -> !s.startsWith("----"))
-            .collect(Collectors.joining(""));
-
-         byte[] privateKeyBytes = Base64.getDecoder().decode(pem);
+         byte[] privateKeyBytes = AbstractSFTPAction.pemStringToDecodedBytes(StringUtils.join("", IOUtils.readLines(resourceAsStream, StandardCharsets.UTF_8)));
 
          SFTPTestConnectionAction.SFTPTestConnectionTestInput input = new SFTPTestConnectionAction.SFTPTestConnectionTestInput()
             .withUsername(BaseSFTPTest.USERNAME)