backports.ssl

What is it?

It's the Python 3.4 standard ssl module API implemented on top of pyOpenSSL:

import backports.ssl as ssl
import socket

context = ssl.SSLContext(ssl.PROTOCOL_SSLv23)
context.verify_mode = ssl.CERT_REQUIRED

conn = context.wrap_socket(socket.socket(socket.AF_INET))
conn.connect(('google.com', 443))
print conn.getpeercert()
conn.close()

Why?

Because the latest web technologies should be available to those running older versions of Python.

Isn't this obsoleted by PEP 466?

If you're on Python 2.7, then probably. But PEP 466 doesn't cover Python 2.6, 3.2, or 3.3, and the ssl.RAND_*() functions are explicitly out of scope. This package supports it all.

How do I use it with third-party libraries?

Monkey-patching support is included a la gevent:

import backports.ssl.monkey as monkey
import requests

monkey.patch()
requests.get('https://google.com')

Why am I getting AttributeErrors for newer features?

Like the standard ssl module, certain attributes will not be available if your OpenSSL does not support them. See Installing OpenSSL for instructions.

Installing OpenSSL

TODO

• Verify that we play nicely with gevent's monkey-patching.
• Backport and pass the standard Python ssl test suite.
• If not that, automate testing against hyper, urllib3, requests, and Tornado test suites.
• Use the bundled 3.x OpenSSL, if available and newer than the default.