diff --git a/lib/internal/crypto/keys.js b/lib/internal/crypto/keys.js
index 321506eaf4a531..fb17ba36ced0e3 100644
--- a/lib/internal/crypto/keys.js
+++ b/lib/internal/crypto/keys.js
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ class KeyObject {
     if (type !== 'secret' && type !== 'public' && type !== 'private')
       throw new ERR_INVALID_ARG_VALUE('type', type);
     if (typeof handle !== 'object')
-      throw new ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE('handle', 'string', handle);
+      throw new ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE('handle', 'object', handle);
 
     this[kKeyType] = type;
 
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-crypto-key-objects.js b/test/parallel/test-crypto-key-objects.js
index ab9005f8598a73..2a3a3ec2f0bff1 100644
--- a/test/parallel/test-crypto-key-objects.js
+++ b/test/parallel/test-crypto-key-objects.js
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ const {
   createSecretKey,
   createPublicKey,
   createPrivateKey,
+  KeyObject,
   randomBytes,
   publicEncrypt,
   privateDecrypt
@@ -39,6 +40,27 @@ const privateDsa = fixtures.readKey('dsa_private_encrypted_1025.pem',
   });
 }
 
+{
+  // Attempting to create a key of a wrong type should throw
+  const TYPE = 'wrong_type';
+
+  common.expectsError(() => new KeyObject(TYPE), {
+    type: TypeError,
+    code: 'ERR_INVALID_ARG_VALUE',
+    message: `The argument 'type' is invalid. Received '${TYPE}'`
+  });
+}
+
+{
+  // Attempting to create a key with non-object handle should throw
+  common.expectsError(() => new KeyObject('secret', ''), {
+    type: TypeError,
+    code: 'ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE',
+    message:
+      'The "handle" argument must be of type object. Received type string'
+  });
+}
+
 {
   const keybuf = randomBytes(32);
   const key = createSecretKey(keybuf);