// Copyright (C) 2016 The Qt Company Ltd. // SPDX-License-Identifier: LicenseRef-Qt-Commercial OR GFDL-1.3-no-invariants-only /*! \page ssl.html \title Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Classes \brief Classes for secure communication over network sockets. \keyword SSL The classes below provide support for secure network communication using the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol, using a native TLS backend, the \l{OpenSSL Toolkit}, or any appropriate TLS plugin to perform encryption and protocol handling. From Qt version 5.15 onward, the officially supported version for OpenSSL is 1.1.1 or later. Qt version 5.15.1 onward is also compatible with OpenSSL 3. \annotatedlist ssl For Android applications see \l{Adding OpenSSL Support for Android}. \section1 Enabling and Disabling SSL Support when Building Qt from Source When building Qt from source, Qt builds plugins for native TLS libraries that are supported for the operating system you are building for. For Windows this means \l{https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/com/schannel}{Schannel}, while for macOS this is \l{https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/secure_transport}{Secure Transport}. On all platforms, the configuration system checks for the presence of the \c{openssl/opensslv.h} header provided by source or developer packages of OpenSSL. If found, it will enable and build the OpenSSL backend for Qt. By default, an OpenSSL-enabled Qt library dynamically loads any installed OpenSSL library at run-time. However, it is possible to link against the library at compile-time by configuring Qt with the \c{-openssl-linked} option. When building a version of Qt linked against OpenSSL, Qt's build system will use CMake's \c{FindOpenSSL} command to find OpenSSL in several standard locations. You can set the CMake variable OPENSSL_ROOT_DIR to force a specific location. For example: \code configure -openssl-linked -- -D OPENSSL_ROOT_DIR= \endcode To disable SSL support in a Qt build, configure Qt with the \c{-no-openssl} option. \section1 Considerations While Packaging Your Application When you package your application, you may run a tool like \l{windeployqt}. This copies all the plugins for the libraries you use to the \c{plugins/} folder. However, for TLS you only need one backend, and you may delete the other plugins before packaging your application. For example, if you're on Windows and don't require any of the extra features the OpenSSL backend provides, you can choose to forego shipping the \c{qopensslbackend} plugin as well as the OpenSSL library, and simply ship the \c{qschannelbackend} plugin. However, shipping multiple backends is not a problem. Qt will attempt to load the backends in order (with OpenSSL attempted first) until one is successfully loaded. The other backends are then unused. \section1 Datagram Transport Layer Security Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) is a protocol that enables security for datagram-based applications, providing them with protection against eavesdropping, tampering, or message forgery. The DTLS protocol is based on the stream-oriented Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol. QtNetwork enables the use of DTLS with User Datagram Protocol (UDP), as defined by \l {RFC 6347}. \section1 Import and Export Restrictions Qt binary installers include the OpenSSL libraries used by QtNetwork. However, those are not automatically deployed with applications that are built with Qt. Import and export restrictions apply for some types of software, and for some parts of the world. Developers wishing to use SSL communication in their deployed applications should either ensure that their users have the appropriate libraries installed, or they should consult a suitably qualified legal professional to ensure that applications using code from the OpenSSL project are correctly certified for import and export in relevant regions of the world. */