NEWARK, Del. - ColoradoDesk -- The OpenSSL project https://openssl.org/ today made available a release candidate for OpenSSL 3.0. The release is the result of the combined efforts of over 300 contributors producing over 7000 updates to the OpenSSL source.

OpenSSL 3.0 contains a substantial redesign and re-implementation of the internal interfaces between the major components of the system to allow for easier extensibility for new capabilities and provides higher-level interfaces to enable easier and safer development of applications on top of OpenSSL.

"It has been an incredible journey over the last three years getting this major update of OpenSSL together and we are pleased to now be at release candidate stage," said Matt Caswell on behalf of the OpenSSL Project. "We encourage all OpenSSL developers and users to build and test against this release and provide feedback."

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The new provider interface and higher-level APIs for message authentication codes, key derivation functions, and secure random numbers allow for more flexibility for third parties and researchers to incorporate additional algorithms and capabilities including the area of post-quantum cryptography. The provider interface also forms the foundation for the in-progress validation to the United States National Institute of Standards and Technologies (NIST) Security Requirements for Cryptographic Modules (FIPS 140-2).

OpenSSL 3.0 is also the first version of OpenSSL to be released under the Apache License version 2.0 enabling easier integration with other open source and commercial projects.

The release candidate, OpenSSL 3.0 beta 1, can be downloaded now from https://www.openssl.org/source/ and any issues encountered should be raised at https://github.com/openssl/openssl/issues

About the OpenSSL Project

Founded in 1998, OpenSSL is a software library for applications that secure communications over computer networks against eavesdropping or need to identify the party at the other end. It is widely used by Internet servers, including the majority of HTTPS websites.