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docs: rewrite ecdsa section of user guide (#9465)

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At the time this section was written, it was all about the introduction of support for ECDSA and how users can start taking advantage of that support.

Now that we use ECDSA by default, this piece of documentation probably should serve a new purpose. My idea here is to document the new behavior that we have in 2.0:  new key type on new certificates, old certificates will keep their existing key type.

Users may now be going in the reverse direction with their changes ("I got an ECDSA certificate but I need RSA because I have an old load balancer appliance!") so I have also updated some section titles to be less about ECDSA and more about Key Types in general.

Fixes #9442.
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alexzorin
2022-11-17 09:41:34 -08:00
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commit 371cc6f9f1
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@@ -455,47 +455,49 @@ replace that set entirely::
certbot certonly --cert-name example.com -d example.org,www.example.org
.. _using-ecdsa-keys:
Using ECDSA keys
----------------
RSA and ECDSA keys
------------------------
As of version 1.10, Certbot supports two types of private key algorithms:
``rsa`` and ``ecdsa``. The type of key used by Certbot can be controlled
through the ``--key-type`` option. You can also use the ``--elliptic-curve``
option to control the curve used in ECDSA certificates.
Certbot supports two certificate private key algorithms: ``rsa`` and ``ecdsa``.
As of version 2.0.0, Certbot defaults to ECDSA ``secp256r1`` (P-256) certificate private keys
for all new certificates. Existing certificates will continue to renew using their existing key
type, unless a key type change is requested.
The type of key used by Certbot can be controlled through the ``--key-type`` option.
You can use the ``--elliptic-curve`` option to control the curve used in ECDSA
certificates and the ``--rsa-key-size`` option to control the size of RSA keys.
.. warning:: If you obtain certificates using ECDSA keys, you should be careful
not to downgrade your Certbot installation since ECDSA keys are not
supported by older versions of Certbot. Downgrades like this are possible if
you switch from something like the snaps or pip to packages
provided by your operating system which often lag behind.
not to downgrade to a Certbot version earlier than 1.10.0 where ECDSA keys were
not supported. Downgrades like this are possible if you switch from something like
the snaps or pip to packages provided by your operating system which often lag behind.
Changing existing certificates from RSA to ECDSA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Changing a certificate's key type
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unless you are aware that you need to support very old HTTPS clients that are
not supported by most sites, you can safely just transition your site to use
ECDSA keys instead of RSA keys. To accomplish this if you have existing
certificates managed by Certbot, you may freely change the certificate to a new
private key.
not supported by most sites, you can safely transition your site to use
ECDSA keys instead of RSA keys.
If you want to use ECDSA keys for all certificates in the future, you can
simply add the following line to Certbot's :ref:`configuration file <config-file>`
If you want to change a single certificate to use ECDSA keys, you'll need to
create or renew a certificate while setting ``--key-type ecdsa`` on the command line:
.. code-block:: shell
certbot renew --key-type ecdsa --cert-name example.com --force-renewal
If you want to use ECDSA keys for all certificates in the future (including renewals
of existing certificates), you can add the following line to Certbot's
:ref:`configuration file <config-file>`:
.. code-block:: ini
key-type = ecdsa
After this option is set, newly obtained certificates will use ECDSA keys. This
includes certificates managed by Certbot that previously used RSA keys.
If you want to change a single certificate to use ECDSA keys, you'll need to
issue a new Certbot command setting ``--key-type ecdsa`` on the command line
like
.. code-block:: shell
certbot renew --key-type ecdsa --cert-name example.com --force-renewal
which will take effect upon the next renewal of each certificate.
Obtaining ECDSA certificates in addition to RSA certificates
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~