Earlier today, Logan posted on Mauritius Internet Users discussion list about LibreSSL availability for non-OpenBSD platforms. I had a look at the LibreSSL homepage and definitely you cannot miss the winking LibreSSL Portable notice.

I downloaded the source & compiled it on my Ubuntu 14.04 64bit machine. All went well, fired up terminal to check the version, it showed LibreSSL 2.0.

The source files can be downloaded from OpenBSD repository.

As for those who want to be spared from compiling I made a DEB package for 64 bit systems. Please try LibreSSL & report any buggy feature you come across to the developers, typically our local BSD developer Logan.

Update

Those wishing to compile, it takes a couple of minutes. Extract the source as follows:

tar zxvf libressl-2.0.2.tar.gz

Enter the libressl-2.0.2 and do:

./configure –prefix=~/LibreSSL

Add the –prefix if ~/LibreSSL is the location where you want to install LibreSSL. Then do:

make && sudo make install

That being done, you may check your LibreSSL installation as follows:

~/LibreSSL/bin/openssl version

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What is SSL?

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, which is a security technology that enables an encrypted connection between a web server and client (web browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Internet Explorer etc). Other applications such as mail servers and clients also use SSL for encryption. Under normal circumstances data sent between web servers and the browser is in plain text, thus leaving it vulnerable to eavesdropping. With the implementation of SSL, eavesdropping is discouraged as the captured data will be encrypted and thus useless.

SSL is a critical security protocol on the web that secures millions of people’s data on the internet everyday. Transactions related to internet banking, online shopping and other transactions pertaining to sensitive information rely heavily on encryption through SSL.