Post
Topic
Board Bitcoin Discussion
Re: Users of Bitcoin Core on Linux must not upgrade to the latest version of OpenSSL
by
gmaxwell
on 12/01/2015, 16:55:37 UTC
The binaries from Bitcoin.org are not effected, not on any operating system.

Virtually all users on Windows and OSX are not impacted, because virtually all of them use provided binaries. The only way you are possibly effected on those platforms is if you built the software for yourself and if you update OpenSSL.

Unless LibreSSL is guaranteeing bug-for-bug compatibility with old OpenSSL, it cannot safely be used with Bitcoin.
I looked at that a while back and their massive house-keeping makes the _changes_ more or less impossible to review. (Of course, OpenSSL is more or less impossible to review to begin with; so for their purposes I cannot blame them.)

Keep in mind the Bitcoin protocol doesn't use SSL. That we're using a SSL library here is an accident of history, and a bad call in general. As this update demonstrates, our needs are at odds with the needs of a SSL library.