Lynx v2.7.2 SSL Support Lynx has HTTPS, SNEWS and CONNECT support via patches or replacement files for the general distribution. It currently is based on the SSLeay crypto and SSL libraries, whose distribution and use are restricted by licenses and state and US laws and regulations as described in: Linkname: SSLeay: SSLeay and SSLapps FAQ URL: http://psych.psy.uq.oz.au/~ftp/Crypto/ The original implementation of HTTPS support in Lynx was done by Lou Montulli (montulli@netscape.com) for lynx2-3-7, using the RSA encryptions library and Netscape SSL library. Fote Macrides adapted that to lynx2-3-FM, and used it as a model for adding the SNEWS support. Fote also added CONNECT support (for tunneling HTTPS and SNEWS requests and documents through proxy servers), based on discussions with Ari Luotonen (luotonen@netscape.com) about the procedure and his patch for implementing CONNECT support in the CERN proxy server. The hooks for SSL support subsequently had to be removed from the general Lynx distribution to avoid problems related to US Export Law restrictions. Tom Zerucha (tz@execpc.com) subsequently adapted the hooks for use with the SSLeay libraries. He had been maintaining them as a patch set, and had been making them available to qualified recipients for application to the Lynx general distributions. He now, instead, offers code for a daemon which can be used analogously to a proxy by a hookless Lynx image to handle the SSL protocol on the hookless image's behalf. Check the "Lynx links" page via the online 'h'elp, or contact Tom, for more information about that daemon. This SSL hook replacement file set is Fote's adaptation of Tom's earlier patch set for including hooks within the Lynx image, and is for use with the January 6, 1998 Lynx v2.7.2 release, available in: http://www.slcc.edu/lynx/release/ ftp://www.slcc.edu/pub/lynx/release gopher://gopher.wfbr.edu/11/_fileserv/_lynx as lynx2-7-2.zip, which breaks out to a lynx2-7-2 directory tree. Break out that zip with the -u switch, and then further replace with the hook replacement files by breaking out lynx272ssleay.zip with the -u switch. The hook replacement files always will have newer dates than their hook-less counterparts, so the order in which you break out the two zips is irrevelent if you use the -u switch with both. The SSL hook replacement C files are: HTAAUtil.c, HTFormat.c, HTNews.c and HTTP.c in the lynx2-7-2/WWW/Library/Implementation subdirectory. A replacement for the top-level Makefile for Unix, and lynx2-7-2/buildssl.com and lynx2-7-2/WWW/Library/vms/libmakessl.com files for VMS, also are included. Read the Makefile or .com files for more information about building an SSL-capable Lynx. Updates of the SSL hooks are needed *only* if one or more of the above four C modules (or Unix Makefile or VMS .com files) change. Note that to avoid patent problems in the US, SSLeay should be made using RSAREF. SSLeay has documentation on how to do this. Also see the comments on SSL_LIBS in the Makefile. Netscape patented SSL in August 1997, but Lou has indicted to Fote that it did so simply to ensure that it remains open for use by any WWW software, and use of SSLeay with Lynx in the US should not be a problem (i.e., beyond the US restrictions on export, and requirements of the RSA patent). Also note that anyone who wishes to port the SSL hooks to new releases of Lynx and distribute them should feel free to do so, at least as far as Fote is concerned.