generate csr with secp384r1elliptic curve key and sha384 hash signature

Question

I am using openssl commands to create a CSR with elliptic curve secp384r1 and hash signed with algorithm sha384:

openssl ecparam -out ec_client_key.pem -name secp384r1 -genkey

openssl req -new -key ec_client_key.pem -out ec_clientReq.pem

Then I display the CSR in readable format with this command:

openssl req -in ec_clientReq.pem -noout -text

In the signature part of the CSR I get this:

Signature Algorithm: ecdsa-with-SHA1
    30:64:02:30:06:a1:f2:5e:1b:34:18:b9:f3:7c:e9:52:c8:78:
    99:90:63:d2:1e:d2:f5:7a:25:f3:d6:4d:6d:90:d0:bf:25:45:
    15:ad:aa:17:34:ad:1a:b9:1e:67:2b:cf:d7:a6:9b:e5:02:30:
    31:fe:76:37:4b:11:3a:e7:2d:63:52:bb:18:2f:8e:43:a7:bb:
    65:74:38:a4:92:38:9d:eb:ec:22:8f:77:f3:e4:5f:47:2d:f8:
    2a:9b:e1:2c:ba:a7:b0:e6:c2:54:8d:0e

What should I do in order to get a signature algorithm "ecdsa-with-SHA384" instead of "ecdsa-with-SHA1"? Am I missing something in this process? I tried to use -sha384 in the second command

openssl req -new -key ec_client_key.pem -out ec_clientReq.pem -sha384

but I got the same result regarding the Signature Algorithm

Signature Algorithm: ecdsa-with-SHA1
    30:65:02:30:4e:b4:b6:5f:3a:fc:b7:28:e5:4b:f0:3d:9a:ea:
    4a:ba:ce:a4:f1:a6:e8:cd:15:19:23:a6:81:3f:24:01:d7:81:
    3c:9d:9a:4c:cd:4b:4a:12:6d:69:48:ec:7e:73:7d:73:02:31:
    00:d7:a5:63:9b:21:b2:95:ce:7f:13:3f:c5:1a:ac:99:01:ff:
    ba:9c:59:93:d5:ee:97:03:b5:9e:c1:7d:03:f8:72:90:65:b5:
    08:7c:79:ae:ea:4f:6e:b0:2b:55:1a:11:a5

Another question regards the format of the signature. In the examples above one is 102 bytes long and the second one is 103 bytes long. It seems that the first bytes are an header including type, length and may be some other stuff like padding. But I cannot find an exact definition. Can someboby put some light on this? Thanks

Answer 1

I tried again with last openssl version 1.0.1e this time (instead of 0.9.8n).

openssl ecparam -out ec_client_key.pem -name secp384r1 -gen

openssl req -config openssl.cnf -new -key ec_client_key.pem -out ec_clientReq.pem -sha384

openssl req -in ec_clientReq.pem -noout -text

Now I get the expected result:

Signature Algorithm: ecdsa-with-SHA384

It looks that version 0.9.8n does not support sha384.

This extract from the CHANGES file seems to confirm this:

Changes between 1.0.0h and 1.0.1 [14 Mar 2012] : ... *) Add HMAC ECC ciphersuites from RFC5289. Include SHA384 PRF support. As required by RFC5289 these ciphersuites cannot be used if for versions of TLS earlier than 1.2. [Steve Henson]

Thanks gtrig for your help.