Re:John Ternus to become Apple CEO
by youngtaff on Monday April 20, 2026 @05:38PM
(#47841217)
iOS (and MacOS) now use Google’s BoringSSL instead and have for many years
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Do they? Based on what I’ve seen with a quick search, this doesn’t seem to be true
See e.g. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/network/creating-a... where the logging output makes it clear BoringSSL is what is used.
Or comments such as: https://github.com/apple-oss-distributions/Security/blob/rel...
Unsurprisingly, given BoringSSL doesn't have a stable API (yet alone ABI), it isn't exposed as a system library.
Seems like they use BoringSSL on their open source distributions, but their own library on their own platforms: https://forums.swift.org/t/native-implementations-and-boring...
iOS Safari definitely used BoringSSL last time I checked it with Frida
CryptoKit isn't relevant to `goto fail`, which was the origin of this thread, given CryptoKit merely implements primitives and not TLS.
If you really are doubting what gets used for TLS, open up Console.app, start streaming, run `nscurl https://example.com/` (or load it in Safari, etc.), and you'll see logging like:
default com.apple.network boringssl 18:11:46.229209-0700 libboringssl.dylib nscurl boringssl_session_apply_protocol_options_for_transport_block_invoke(2360) [C1.1.1.1:2][0x1008cef10] TLS configured [server(0) min_version(0x0303) max_version(0x0304) name(redacted) tickets(false) false_start(false) enforce_ev(false) enforce_ats(false) ats_non_pfs_ciphersuite_allowed(false) cc_mode_enforced(false) ech(false) pqtls(true), pake(false)]