6

We are evaluating whether to buy a RSA based certificate or a ECC based certificate.

RSA is older and is supported by all browsers.

ECC is newer, they state it is faster due requiring smaller key for a similar security etc.

Unfortunately, I could not find what browsers and OSes supports ECC certificates. Would you guide me to the right site or specification sites for major browsers and OSes (including mobile ones)?

Vilican
  • 149
  • 1
  • 19
alik
  • 369
  • 1
  • 4
  • 11
  • Currently all major OSes and web browsers do support ECC certificates. OSes prior to Windows Vista and IE8 do not support them. – Crypt32 Mar 05 '15 at 19:44
  • So all meaningful Android, Chrome, Safari, iOS, iPhone, Firefox, Opera, Opera Mini, Symbian supports them? Are you aware of a site which we can use to check details? – alik Mar 05 '15 at 20:02
  • 1
    Yes, all of them do support ECC certificate. However, they may support only limited curve set. For example, Windows OS (prior to Windows 10) supports only few curves from Suite B. No, I don't have a link. – Crypt32 Mar 05 '15 at 20:20
  • So if I understood correctly, it is safe to deploy ECC certificates (i.e. they will work for almost all possible visitors). – alik Mar 05 '15 at 20:22
  • Outdated browser versions may not support ECC. As I already said, IE8 do not support ECC at all. IE9+ does. – Crypt32 Mar 05 '15 at 20:37
  • Oh, I have originally thought that "prior to" means exclusive, but now it seems like inclusive. So to make it clear, neither IE8 nor Vista supports ECC. To have it supported, one need to have Windows 7+ and IE9+. – alik Mar 05 '15 at 20:46
  • Sorry it was a mistake in my first comment. There should be "prior to IE9 and Windows Vista". Exclusive. Say, IE9 on Windows Vista will work with ECC certificates. – Crypt32 Mar 05 '15 at 20:51
  • @CryptoGuy do you have any references? – mikemaccana May 08 '15 at 15:06
  • no, I don't any. – Crypt32 May 09 '15 at 08:06

1 Answers1

4

From GloablSign's ECC Compatibility list it looks like the following are compatible:

Browsers:

  1. Safari 4
  2. Chrome 1.0
  3. Internet Explorer 7 (On Vista)
  4. Firefox 2.0

Operating Systems:

  1. Apple OS X 10.6
  2. Android 4.0
  3. Windows Vista

They have Red Hat Enterprise Linux listed as 6.5. Not sure what it would be for other distros.

mikemaccana
  • 3,070
  • 5
  • 24
  • 29
Gregordinary
  • 318
  • 1
  • 9