> From: openssl-users [mailto:openssl-users-boun...@openssl.org] On Behalf
> Of Tony Girgenti
> Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2016 08:26
> To: openssl-users@openssl.org
> Subject: Re: [openssl-users] Getting error 'SSLv2_client_method': identifier
> not found
> 
> I forget where I downloaded OpenSSL from, but all I did was download a zip
> file and unzipped all the file to a folder called: OpenSSL-Win32.
> 
> From there, I simply pointed my Visual Studio project properties directory
> search for includes and lib files to that folder.  I did not compile or
> change anything in that folder.

Linking against a security component of unknown provenance? Let's just say that 
would not be my preferred approach.

Of course this points to one of the (many) problems with TLS: It's not easy to 
get it into your application. Open-source implementations (OpenSSL, GnuTLS, 
LibreSSL, NSS, CyaSSL, ...) are not trivial to work with. Many OSes come with 
some TLS implementation installed by default or as an add-on package, but then 
you have to work with their API, build, configuration, etc, which often raises 
issues with portability; and if, say, you're trying to use an application (or 
other component) that's built to use OpenSSL, then Microsoft's SChannel isn't 
going to do you much good.

That said, it's not that hard to read the instructions, download the OpenSSL 
tarball, verify its signature, and build it.

Then all you have to worry about are the myriad difficulties of using the 
OpenSSL API, dealing with the wide array of SSL and TLS protocol and 
ciphersuite pitfalls, navigating the nightmarish bog of X.509-certificate PKIs, 
diagnosing obscure failures, educating users, ...

TLS is a solution that asymptotically approaches being worse than the problem. 
(Now I want that on a t-shirt.) But at the moment there are no viable 
alternatives for most use cases.

-- 
Michael Wojcik
Technology Specialist, Micro Focus
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