Add support for elliptic curve diffie-hellmann key exchange (ECDH)

This patch is based on Jan Just Keijser's patch from Feb 7, 2012.

When OpenSSL 1.0.2+ or PolarSSL is used, lets the crypto library do the
heavy lifting. For OpenSSL builds, if a user specifies a curve using
--ecdh-curve, it first tries to override automatic selection using that
curve.

For older OpenSSL, tries the following things (in order of preference):
 * When supplied, use the ecdh curve specified by the user.
 * Try to extract the curve from the private key, use the same curve.
 * Fall back on secp384r1 curve.

Note that although a curve lookup might succeed, OpenSSL 1.0.0 and older do
*not* support TLSv1.1 or TLSv1.2, which means no that no EC-crypto can be
used.

Signed-off-by: Steffan Karger <steffan@karger.me>
Acked-by: Arne Schwabe <arne@rfc2549.org>
Message-Id: <53597BEA.6080408@karger.me>
URL: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.network.openvpn.devel/8625
Signed-off-by: Gert Doering <gert@greenie.muc.de>

1 files changed, 35 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/README.ec b/README.ec
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3293801
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.ec
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+Since 2.4.0, OpenVPN has official support for elliptic curve crypto. Elliptic
+curves are an alternative to RSA for asymmetric encryption.
+
+Elliptic curve crypto ('ECC') can be used for the ('TLS') control channel only
+in OpenVPN; the data channel (encrypting the actual network traffic) uses
+symmetric encryption. ECC can be used in TLS for authentication (ECDSA) and key
+exchange (ECDH).
+
+Key exchange (ECDH)
+-------------------
+OpenVPN 2.4.0 and newer automatically initialize ECDH parameters. When ECDSA is
+used for authentication, the curve used for the server certificate will be used
+for ECDH too. When autodetection fails (e.g. when using RSA certificates)
+OpenVPN lets the crypto library decide if possible, or falls back to the
+secp384r1 curve.
+
+An administrator can force an OpenVPN/OpenSSL server to use a specific curve
+using the --ecdh-curve <curvename> option with one of the curves listed as
+available by the --show-curves option. Clients will use the same curve as
+selected by the server.
+
+Note that not all curves listed by --show-curves are available for use with TLS;
+in that case connecting will fail with a 'no shared cipher' TLS error.
+
+Authentication (ECDSA)
+----------------------
+Since OpenVPN 2.4.0, using ECDSA certificates works 'out of the box'. Which
+specific curves and cipher suites are available depends on your version and
+configuration of the crypto library. The crypto library will automatically
+select a cipher suite for the TLS control channel.
+
+Support for generating an ECDSA certificate chain is available in EasyRSA (in
+spite of it's name) since EasyRSA 3.0. The parameters you're looking for are
+'--use-algo=ec' and '--curve=<curve_name>'. See the EasyRSA documentation for
+more details on generating ECDSA certificates.