Why does PxPlus need/use external SSL libraries?

[Mike King]

When running PxPlus on Linux/AIX or similar systems, the system will load the SSL libraries when the first reference is made to any component within the libraries is required.  The fact that the SSL libraries are not directly linked into the EXE allows these libraries to be independently updated.  The same is true for Windows however there we actually ship current SSL libraries with the product as opposed to relying on the OS supplying them.

Not all applications will need the SSL libraries, but the following PxPlus functions do require them to be present:

• Any access to SSL/TLS communications (TCP, HTTPS, etc connections)
• 
  Use of the HSH functions other than the basic hashing algorithm (hash type 0)

Over time the SSL libraries on your system may need to be updated to address problems and deficiencies that may be discovered and corrected by the makers of openssl.   On Linux and most Unix based systems, these updates can be obtained using the OS supplied software update utilities.  For PxPlus for Windows, these can be extracted from newer versions of PxPlus and applied as needed.

Because security is so important we kept these libraries external from PxPlus so they may be updated as needed without having to replace/updated the whole PxPlus installation.