OpenSSL cipher suite support / key requirement for ecdhe_ecdsa_with_aes128_cbc_sha256

Question

I hope this is the right place for that kind of question.

So actually I am trying to test the TLS implementation of some industrial device. I have to write my own TLS implementation for this, for which I am using the OpenSSL library and I also do testing via console commands, the version is 1.1.1f.

The device I test only supports the cipher suite tls_ecdhe_ecdsa_with_aes128_cbc_sha256 (0xc023).

As a preparation I want to test an OpenSSL client vs. an OpenSSL server and I am using the follwoing commands to set up both (the certificate has been generated before with OpenSSL as well):

openssl.exe s_server -accept 2 -cipher ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA256 -key cs_key.pem -cert cs_cert.pem -msg -state -debug -tlsextdebug -bugs

and

openssl.exe s_client -connect localhost:2 -tls1_2 -cipher ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA256 -msg -state -debug -tlsextdebug -bugs

The server aborts the TLS handshake with an alert message and the console output

11096:error:1417A0C1:SSL routines:tls_post_process_client_hello:no shared cipher:ssl\statem\statem_srvr.c:2284:
shutting down SSL

This also happens when I use my real device as client.

My questions are:

1. Why does the server say there was no shared cipher when I explicitely set up the server to support only that one cipher suite? I suppose it is supported by the OpenSSL implementation as otherwise the s_server call would fail.
2. How can I make this work?

Addendum:

If I support all the ECDHE-ECDSA ciphers in the client hello by using

openssl.exe s_client -connect localhost:2 -tls1_2 -cipher ECDHE+ECDSA -msg -state -debug -tlsextdebug

the handshake fails in the same way.

Solution:

In the meantime i stumbled over this and found out this issue is a matter of proper key generation. By applying the proposed solution in the linked thread I was able to get my example working.

Answer 1

Why does the server say there was no shared cipher when I explicitely set up the server to support only that one cipher suite?

The chosen cipher suite requires that an ECC certificate gets used. Likely you have a RSA certificate instead since most instructions on how to create a certificate cover only this. If you have a RSA certificate you cannot use an ECDSA cipher and thus the server has essentially no cipher to choose from - which results in no shared cipher.

How can I make this work?

Create an ECC certificate for the server. See for example Create a self-signed ECC certificate for instructions.