diff --git a/acme/setup.py b/acme/setup.py
index 5a77f8a67..0843288e6 100644
--- a/acme/setup.py
+++ b/acme/setup.py
@@ -18,7 +18,9 @@ install_requires = [
     'pyrfc3339',
     'pytz',
     'requests',
-    'setuptools',  # pkg_resources
+    # For pkg_resources. >=1.0 so pip resolves it to a version cryptography
+    # will tolerate; see #2599:
+    'setuptools>=1.0',
     'six',
 ]
 
diff --git a/letsencrypt-apache/setup.py b/letsencrypt-apache/setup.py
index a8e010f0e..46f4da54c 100644
--- a/letsencrypt-apache/setup.py
+++ b/letsencrypt-apache/setup.py
@@ -11,7 +11,9 @@ install_requires = [
     'acme=={0}'.format(version),
     'letsencrypt=={0}'.format(version),
     'python-augeas',
-    'setuptools',  # pkg_resources
+    # For pkg_resources. >=1.0 so pip resolves it to a version cryptography
+    # will tolerate; see #2599:
+    'setuptools>=1.0',
     'zope.component',
     'zope.interface',
 ]
diff --git a/letsencrypt-nginx/setup.py b/letsencrypt-nginx/setup.py
index 656d6e04f..e53bef059 100644
--- a/letsencrypt-nginx/setup.py
+++ b/letsencrypt-nginx/setup.py
@@ -12,7 +12,9 @@ install_requires = [
     'letsencrypt=={0}'.format(version),
     'PyOpenSSL',
     'pyparsing>=1.5.5',  # Python3 support; perhaps unnecessary?
-    'setuptools',  # pkg_resources
+    # For pkg_resources. >=1.0 so pip resolves it to a version cryptography
+    # will tolerate; see #2599:
+    'setuptools>=1.0',
     'zope.interface',
 ]
 
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index cbf0ff89d..b187e6fdb 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -45,7 +45,9 @@ install_requires = [
     'pyrfc3339',
     'python2-pythondialog>=3.2.2rc1',  # Debian squeeze support, cf. #280
     'pytz',
-    'setuptools',  # pkg_resources
+    # For pkg_resources. >=1.0 so pip resolves it to a version cryptography
+    # will tolerate; see #2599:
+    'setuptools>=1.0',
     'six',
     'zope.component',
     'zope.interface',