[Python-Dev] RFC: Backport ssl.MemoryBIO and ssl.SSLObject to Python 2.7 (original) (raw)

Cory Benfield cory at lukasa.co.uk
Thu Jun 1 06:47:31 EDT 2017

On 1 Jun 2017, at 11:39, David Wilson <dw+python-dev at hmmz.org> wrote:

Hi Cory, On Thu, Jun 01, 2017 at 11:22:21AM +0100, Cory Benfield wrote:

We want to support as many TLS backends as possible. Just a wild idea, but have you investigated a pure-Python fallback for 2.7 such as TLSlite? Of course the fallback need only be used during bootstrapping, and the solution would be compatible with every stable LTS Linux distribution release that was not shipping the latest and greatest 2.7.

I have, but discarded the idea. There are no pure-Python TLS implementations that are both feature-complete and actively maintained. Additionally, doing crypto operations in pure-Python is a bad idea, so any implementation that did crypto in Python code would be ruled out immediately (which rules out TLSLite), so I’d need what amounts to a custom library: pure-Python TLS with crypto from OpenSSL, which is not currently exposed by any Python module. Ultimately it’s just not a winner.

Cory

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