When I need SSL certificates on my website, I purchase certificates from GoGetSSL.com. Most of my SSL certificates are Sectigo Positive SSL, previously called Comodo. It is a very good deal. $7.90 for two years.

Back to my topic today, I like to use ECC SSL instead of RSA SSL. ECC is much better than RSA. You can find a lot of articles compared these two types of certificats. I don’t discuss it here. Just let you know, I prefer to use ECC.

OK, I used to request the ECC certificate with a prime256v1 curve. Last week, I am working on a website to renew its SSL certificate. I think maybe I can try some higher secure curve for the renew.

I run the command to list the supported curve of openssl v1.1.1f.

davidyin@instance:~$ openssl ecparam -list_curves
  secp112r1 : SECG/WTLS curve over a 112 bit prime field
  secp112r2 : SECG curve over a 112 bit prime field
  secp128r1 : SECG curve over a 128 bit prime field
  secp128r2 : SECG curve over a 128 bit prime field
  secp160k1 : SECG curve over a 160 bit prime field
  secp160r1 : SECG curve over a 160 bit prime field
  secp160r2 : SECG/WTLS curve over a 160 bit prime field
  secp192k1 : SECG curve over a 192 bit prime field
  secp224k1 : SECG curve over a 224 bit prime field
  secp224r1 : NIST/SECG curve over a 224 bit prime field
  secp256k1 : SECG curve over a 256 bit prime field
  secp384r1 : NIST/SECG curve over a 384 bit prime field
  secp521r1 : NIST/SECG curve over a 521 bit prime field
  prime192v1: NIST/X9.62/SECG curve over a 192 bit prime field
  prime192v2: X9.62 curve over a 192 bit prime field
  prime192v3: X9.62 curve over a 192 bit prime field
  prime239v1: X9.62 curve over a 239 bit prime field
  prime239v2: X9.62 curve over a 239 bit prime field
  prime239v3: X9.62 curve over a 239 bit prime field
  prime256v1: X9.62/SECG curve over a 256 bit prime field
  sect113r1 : SECG curve over a 113 bit binary field
  sect113r2 : SECG curve over a 113 bit binary field
  sect131r1 : SECG/WTLS curve over a 131 bit binary field
  sect131r2 : SECG curve over a 131 bit binary field
  sect163k1 : NIST/SECG/WTLS curve over a 163 bit binary field
  sect163r1 : SECG curve over a 163 bit binary field
  sect163r2 : NIST/SECG curve over a 163 bit binary field
  sect193r1 : SECG curve over a 193 bit binary field
  sect193r2 : SECG curve over a 193 bit binary field
  sect233k1 : NIST/SECG/WTLS curve over a 233 bit binary field
  sect233r1 : NIST/SECG/WTLS curve over a 233 bit binary field
  sect239k1 : SECG curve over a 239 bit binary field
  sect283k1 : NIST/SECG curve over a 283 bit binary field
  sect283r1 : NIST/SECG curve over a 283 bit binary field
  sect409k1 : NIST/SECG curve over a 409 bit binary field
  sect409r1 : NIST/SECG curve over a 409 bit binary field
  sect571k1 : NIST/SECG curve over a 571 bit binary field
  sect571r1 : NIST/SECG curve over a 571 bit binary field
  c2pnb163v1: X9.62 curve over a 163 bit binary field
  c2pnb163v2: X9.62 curve over a 163 bit binary field
  c2pnb163v3: X9.62 curve over a 163 bit binary field
  c2pnb176v1: X9.62 curve over a 176 bit binary field
  c2tnb191v1: X9.62 curve over a 191 bit binary field
  c2tnb191v2: X9.62 curve over a 191 bit binary field
  c2tnb191v3: X9.62 curve over a 191 bit binary field
  c2pnb208w1: X9.62 curve over a 208 bit binary field
  c2tnb239v1: X9.62 curve over a 239 bit binary field
  c2tnb239v2: X9.62 curve over a 239 bit binary field
  c2tnb239v3: X9.62 curve over a 239 bit binary field
  c2pnb272w1: X9.62 curve over a 272 bit binary field
  c2pnb304w1: X9.62 curve over a 304 bit binary field
  c2tnb359v1: X9.62 curve over a 359 bit binary field
  c2pnb368w1: X9.62 curve over a 368 bit binary field
  c2tnb431r1: X9.62 curve over a 431 bit binary field
  wap-wsg-idm-ecid-wtls1: WTLS curve over a 113 bit binary field
  wap-wsg-idm-ecid-wtls3: NIST/SECG/WTLS curve over a 163 bit binary field
  wap-wsg-idm-ecid-wtls4: SECG curve over a 113 bit binary field
  wap-wsg-idm-ecid-wtls5: X9.62 curve over a 163 bit binary field
  wap-wsg-idm-ecid-wtls6: SECG/WTLS curve over a 112 bit prime field
  wap-wsg-idm-ecid-wtls7: SECG/WTLS curve over a 160 bit prime field
  wap-wsg-idm-ecid-wtls8: WTLS curve over a 112 bit prime field
  wap-wsg-idm-ecid-wtls9: WTLS curve over a 160 bit prime field
  wap-wsg-idm-ecid-wtls10: NIST/SECG/WTLS curve over a 233 bit binary field
  wap-wsg-idm-ecid-wtls11: NIST/SECG/WTLS curve over a 233 bit binary field
  wap-wsg-idm-ecid-wtls12: WTLS curve over a 224 bit prime field
  Oakley-EC2N-3:
        IPSec/IKE/Oakley curve #3 over a 155 bit binary field.
        Not suitable for ECDSA.
        Questionable extension field!
  Oakley-EC2N-4:
        IPSec/IKE/Oakley curve #4 over a 185 bit binary field.
        Not suitable for ECDSA.
        Questionable extension field!
  brainpoolP160r1: RFC 5639 curve over a 160 bit prime field
  brainpoolP160t1: RFC 5639 curve over a 160 bit prime field
  brainpoolP192r1: RFC 5639 curve over a 192 bit prime field
  brainpoolP192t1: RFC 5639 curve over a 192 bit prime field
  brainpoolP224r1: RFC 5639 curve over a 224 bit prime field
  brainpoolP224t1: RFC 5639 curve over a 224 bit prime field
  brainpoolP256r1: RFC 5639 curve over a 256 bit prime field
  brainpoolP256t1: RFC 5639 curve over a 256 bit prime field
  brainpoolP320r1: RFC 5639 curve over a 320 bit prime field
  brainpoolP320t1: RFC 5639 curve over a 320 bit prime field
  brainpoolP384r1: RFC 5639 curve over a 384 bit prime field
  brainpoolP384t1: RFC 5639 curve over a 384 bit prime field
  brainpoolP512r1: RFC 5639 curve over a 512 bit prime field
  brainpoolP512t1: RFC 5639 curve over a 512 bit prime field
  SM2       : SM2 curve over a 256 bit prime field

There are so many curves I can use. I just very briefly check the name, I thought I can try secp521r1.

So firstly, I generated a key with secp521r1 curve: server.key.

Then, I created a certificate request file. server.csr.

I upload this car file to gogetssl.com to issue a new certificate.

Very quickly, it displayed the error, contact support.

I contacted the support team of gogetssl.com.

The answer is below:

ECDSA key in the CSR is generated upon an uncommon curve, some SSL/TLS implementations may not support it. There are two elliptic curves that are supported by the most implementations: prime256v1 and secp384r1

OK. I have to redo the previous steps to generate a new key, a new CSR, send it to support. About 10 minutes, I got my new certificate. It is based on secp384r1

The conclusion is that the prime256v1 and secp384r1 are supported by SSL issuer now.

 

David Yin

David is a blogger, geek, and web developer — founder of FreeInOutBoard.com. If you like his post, you can say thank you here

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