diff --git a/lib/internal/crypto/keys.js b/lib/internal/crypto/keys.js
index db7be824ac3e16..ecd747d947516f 100644
--- a/lib/internal/crypto/keys.js
+++ b/lib/internal/crypto/keys.js
@@ -215,7 +215,7 @@ function parsePrivateKeyEncoding(enc, keyType, objName) {
 
 function getKeyObjectHandle(key, isPublic, allowKeyObject) {
   if (!allowKeyObject) {
-    return new ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE(
+    throw new ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE(
       'key',
       ['string', 'Buffer', 'TypedArray', 'DataView'],
       key
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-crypto-key-objects.js b/test/parallel/test-crypto-key-objects.js
index 8a28ac996084a5..d4ec93fbbfdd66 100644
--- a/test/parallel/test-crypto-key-objects.js
+++ b/test/parallel/test-crypto-key-objects.js
@@ -58,6 +58,17 @@ const privatePem = fixtures.readSync('test_rsa_privkey.pem', 'ascii');
   assert(plaintext.equals(deciphered));
 }
 
+{
+  // Passing an existing key object should throw.
+  const publicKey = createPublicKey(publicPem);
+  common.expectsError(() => createPublicKey(publicKey), {
+    type: TypeError,
+    code: 'ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE',
+    message: 'The "key" argument must be one of type string, Buffer, ' +
+             'TypedArray, or DataView. Received type object'
+  });
+}
+
 {
   const publicKey = createPublicKey(publicPem);
   assert.strictEqual(publicKey.type, 'public');