[wladimir]

I'm not sure either.

If it is encrypted, it would at least buy some time to replace all the certificates signed by this private key. Depending on the strength of the encryption key, obviously.

[pagekalisedown]

Just by looking at the PEM's number of lines you can tell it's a 1024 bit key.

[wladimir]

That's the private key itself. I was somewhat unclear in my wording. We (I and the grandparent poster) were wondering if the private key was encrypted with a passphrase.

[pagekalisedown]

Good point. The strength of the private key isn't relevant. Only the encryption used to protect the key.