Re: Why can't we get a proper installation method to keep OpenSSL at the latest revision for Linux?

Jan Just Keijser <janjust@xxxxxxxxx> · Mon, 31 May 2021 11:54:30 +0200



    On 30/05/21 14:05, Michael McKenney
      wrote:

    
        Why can't we get a proper installation
          method to keep OpenSSL at the latest revision for Linux?

          
          My biggest compliant with Linux is it is so difficult to get
          best practice installations for services like OpenSSL.  
          Ubuntu is still on 1.1.1f.    I have been trying to upgrade to
          1.1.1k.   Openssl version -a states I am on 1.1.1k.   When
          programs in Wordpress that use OpenSSL show I am using
          1.1.1.f.   Spending hours of time on various sites like
          AskUbuntu.com, only to be disappointed.   Microsoft has best
          practices guides for installations.   Why can’t we get them
          for Linux.
          
         
    this is both very hard and undesirable: 

    openssl can be regarded as a low-level system library that is used
    by many applications across the entire Linux distribution. You
    cannot simply upgrade this low-level system library without breaking
    these applications. Admittedly, for an upgrade from 1.1.1f ->
    1.1.1k the risk of introducing an API change is quite low, but for
    anything else (e.g. 1.1.0x -> 1.1.1k) you will almost certainly
    have to rebuild and relink all applications that depend on the
    OpenSSL libraries. 

    This is not something you can expect from the Linux distro
    maintainers. For them, it is far less risky to backport security
    fixes to the version of OpenSSL that they built their distro on
    (e.g. Ubuntu 20 > 1.1.1f; CentOS 7 -> 1.0.2k (yes!), etc).

    
    Note that most update woes that Windows 10 has had over the past few
    years were related to library updates breaking applications - so
    even microsoft has problems with "best practices".

    
    HTH,

    
    JJK