The anticipated future arrival of cryptographically relevant quantum computers (CRQCs),
that could undermine the algorithms that underlie the currently most widely used public key algorithms (ECDHE, ECDSA, DH and RSA),
has led to the development and recent standardisation of new “post-quantum” (PQ) algorithms, that are believed to not be vulnerable to CRQC attack.
Two of the first algorithms standardized are ML-KEM (for key agreement) and ML-DSA (for digital signatures).
These algorithms are standardized by NIST in FIPS 203 and FIPS 204. These define the algorithm parameters and how to correctly
perform the necessary mathematical operations, but do not define such details as data formats for public and private keys.
Those details were left to other standards organisations, such as the IETF.
From the very beginning of the project, OpenSSL has depended on a
community of experts to enable secure and private communication. It’s
safe to say that without volunteers contributing code, tests and
documentation, we wouldn’t have the modern internet. In order to
preserve and grow that ecosystem, the OpenSSL
Foundation has brought in Jon Ericson
as its first Communities Manager.
Jon began his programming career as an intern at the US National
Weather Service where he designed software to test instruments for the
Automated Surface Observing System
(ASOS). He continued as a programmer
at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
with the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission
(SRTM)
ground-data team. When that project ended, he managed data processing
for the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer
(TES) mission which collected global
atmospheric data from heliosynchronous orbit. Along the way he
participated in open source projects such as Perl and Emacs via Usenet
groups and mailing lists.
The OpenSSL Foundation will be attending FOSDEM in Brussels, Belgium on 1-2 February 2025, and we’d like to connect with you!
The Free and Open Source Developers’ European Meeting (FOSDEM) is a volunteer-organized event to promote the widespread use of free and open source software. The conference includes 1,001 events across two days, taking place in 40 rooms on the ULB Solbosch Campus. There is no fee to participate and attend.
The OpenSSL Foundation is pleased to share its Annual Report for fiscal year 2024, covering the period of August 1, 2023 through July 31, 2024. This public document is a first for the Foundation, reflecting a renewed commitment to transparency with our communities and the sponsors and donors whose contributions provide critical financial support.
One year ago, we celebrated the 25th anniversary of OpenSSL, marking the release of version 0.9.1c on December 23, 1998, and it seemed fitting to share this Annual Report today, on OpenSSL’s 26th birthday. So much has changed over those 26 years, but our reliance on our community of committers, contributors, and funders has not. We greatly appreciate the many contributions of many types that keep OpenSSL strong and secure and hope you enjoy reading about all that we achieved together.
As previously communicated the recent election for the Distributions seat on the
Foundation BAC resulted in a tie between Dmitry Belyavsky (Red Hat) and John
Haxby (Oracle). As a result we will be re-running this election in early January
with just these two candidates. Voting will open on 3rd January 2025 and will
close on 10th January 2025.
The “Distributions” community includes maintainers of operating systems or
significant packages that integrate OpenSSL Foundation and OpenSSL Corporation
projects. If you are involved in an OpenSSL distribution then we encourage you
to sign up to the
community and vote in the second round of the election in January.
Upon certification of the election results by the Election Committee, the OpenSSL Foundation and the OpenSSL Corporation are pleased to announce the official results of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) elections. After a thorough nomination and voting process, the OpenSSL community has selected a group of distinguished individuals to provide guidance and advice to OpenSSL.
Newly Elected Members
The following candidates have been elected to serve on the Business Advisory Committee:
The OpenSSL Foundation is pleased to announce that we are reopening the opportunity for individuals to financially support our work through donations on Github Sponsors. Individual contributions of time, expertise, and financial support have always been critical to our ability to keep improving the OpenSSL software library, and we are excited to once again welcome financial contributions at all levels.
Thank you to everyone who registered, as well as those who took the extra step to nominate candidates, for the Business Advisory Committees of the OpenSSL Foundation and OpenSSL Corporation. We are now at the final step - voting - which is essential to complete the process.
Start Date: December 5, 2024 Deadline for Voting: December 15, 2024 11:59pm Pacific Time (US/ Canada)
Election Committee
The Election Committee is composed of the directors of the OpenSSL Foundation and the OpenSSL Corporation. This marks the first inaugural Election Committee, tasked with overseeing and managing the election processes across various communities. The committee is dedicated to ensuring that voting is conducted fairly, transparently, and in alignment with the established rules and procedures.
Thank you to everyone who attended our Q&A sessions about the formation of Business Advisory Committees. We received valuable input from our communities, including requests to allow more time for nominations.
We have heard you, and we would like to announce that:
The nomination period has been extended until Wednesday, December 4, 2024.
The election period starts on Thursday, December 5, 2024 and ends on Sunday, December 15, 2024. You can change your vote up to the end of the election period.
This extension provides additional time to ensure everyone has the opportunity to nominate the individuals who can best represent the community’ s view and needs.