OpenSSL: Information from Answers.com

OpenSSL
Developer(s)	The OpenSSL Project
Stable release	0.9.8l (2009-11-05; 24 days ago^[1]) _[+/−]
Preview release	1.0.0beta4 (2009-11-10; 19 days ago^[2]) _[+/−]
Written in	C
Operating system	Multi-platform
Type	Security library
License	Apache-like unique
Website	http://www.openssl.org/

OpenSSL is an open source implementation of the SSL and TLS protocols. The core library (written in the C programming language) implements the basic cryptographic functions and provides various utility functions. Wrappers allowing the use of the OpenSSL library in a variety of computer languages are available.

Versions are available for most Unix-like operating systems (including Solaris, Linux, Mac OS X and the four open source BSD operating systems), OpenVMS and Microsoft Windows. IBM provides a port for the System i (iSeries/AS400). OpenSSL is based on SSLeay by Eric A. Young and Tim Hudson, development of which unofficially ended around December 1998, when Tim and Eric both started to work for RSA Security.

1 Major version releases
2 Algorithms
3 FIPS 140-2 compliance
4 Licensing
5 Misconceptions
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

Major version releases

OpenSSL 0.9.8 was released on July 5, 2005.
OpenSSL 0.9.7 was released on December 31, 2002.
OpenSSL 0.9.6 was released on September 25, 2000.
OpenSSL 0.9.5 was released on February 28, 2000.
OpenSSL 0.9.4 was released on August 9, 1999.
OpenSSL 0.9.3 was released on May 25, 1999.

Algorithms

OpenSSL supports a number of different cryptographic algorithms:

Ciphers: AES, Blowfish, Camellia, CAST-128, DES, IDEA, RC2, RC4, RC5, Triple DES
Cryptographic hash functions: MD5, MD2, SHA, MDC-2
Public-key cryptography: RSA, DSA, Diffie-Hellman key exchange, Elliptic curve

FIPS 140-2 compliance

OpenSSL is one of the few open source programs to be validated under the FIPS 140-2 computer security standard by the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Cryptographic Module Validation Program. A certificate was first awarded in January 2006 but revoked in July 2006 "when questions were raised about the validated module’s interaction with outside software." The certification has since been reinstated.^[3]

Licensing

OpenSSL is "dual licensed" under the OpenSSL License and the SSLeay license.^[4] The common usage of the term dual-license is that the user may pick which license they wish to use. However, OpenSSL documentation uses the term dual-license to mean that both licenses apply.

The OpenSSL license requires the phrase This product includes software developed by the OpenSSL Project for use in the OpenSSL Toolkit. (http://www.openssl.org/) to appear in advertising material and any redistributions (Sections 3 and 6 of the OpenSSL License). Due to this restriction, it is incompatible with the GPL.^[5] Some GPL developers have added an OpenSSL exception to their licenses specifically allowing OpenSSL to be used with their system. GNU Wget and climm both use such exceptions.^[6]^[7] Other packages use the LGPL licensed GnuTLS which performs the same task.

Misconceptions

Because of the prefix Open- on its name, OpenSSL is often associated with OpenBSD^{[citation needed]}; which distributes several programs using the naming style of Open*, like OpenSSH. This is, however, a mistake, as OpenSSL is developed completely outside of the scope of OpenBSD by The OpenSSL Project, under a different license than is commonly used by OpenBSD. Like with FreeBSD's OpenBSM, the project simply shares the goal of having an open source implementation of a valuable asset for the common good.