The OpenSSL project released the first alpha of OpenSSL 4.1.0, giving developers an early look at a version built for encrypted communication over unreliable connections and faster post-quantum cryptography. This marks the opening test build for a version still months from general availability.

The headline addition is support for DTLS 1.3, the latest revision of the Datagram Transport Layer Security protocol defined in RFC 9147. DTLS secures traffic sent over UDP rather than TCP, the kind of connection used by video calls, VPNs, and IoT devices where packets can arrive late or out of order. Version 1.3 brings that traffic up to the same security baseline as TLS 1.3, closing a gap where DTLS deployments had lagged behind their…