Why isn't SSL/TLS built into modern Operating Systems?

Posted by Channel72 on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by Channel72
Published on 2011-03-20T00:15:42Z Indexed on 2011/03/20 0:17 UTC
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A lot of the basic network protocols that make up the infrastructure of the Internet are built in to most major Operating Systems. Things like TCP, UDP, and DNS are all built into Linux, UNIX and Windows, and are made available to the programmer through low-level system APIs.

But when it comes to SSL or TLS, one has to turn to a third-party library such as OpenSSL or Mozilla NSS.

SSL is a relatively old protocol, and it's basically an industry standard as ubiquitous as TCP/IP, so why isn't it built into most Operating Systems?

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