How to fix curl sslv3 alert handshake failure?

Some sites disable support for SSL 3.0 (possible because of many exploits/vulnerabilities), so it's possible to force specific SSL version by either -2/--sslv2 or -3/--sslv3. Also -L is worth a try if requested page has moved to a different location.

In my case it was a curl bug (found in OpenSSL), so curl needed to be upgraded to the latest version (>7.40) and it worked fine.

See also:

• 3 Common Causes of Unknown SSL Protocol Errors with cURL
• Error when Installing Meteor at SO
• [Bug 861137] Re: Openssl TLS errors while connecting to SSLv3 sites

Starting with Mavericks, Apple switched the TLS/SSL engine from OpenSSL to their own Secure Transport engine in Apple distributed cURL binary which breaks client certificate usage. Use the cURL binary from homebrew:

brew install curl
brew link curl --force