Is there a way to add the passphrase for the AES Root Key (.qek) when generating an encrypted configuration file using the quartus_pfg command line tool?

Description

Yes, when generating an encrypted configuration file using the quartus_pfg command line tool for Intel® Stratix® 10 or Intel Agilex® 5 FPGA and Intel Agilex® 7 devices, you can use the "password" option to specify a text file that contains the passphrase for the AES Root Key (.qek).  

Resolution

Add "-o password=<password.txt>" to your quartus_pfg command where password.txt is the text file that contains the passphrase.