Server-side SSL and certificate validation, by Bill Janssen.
While cleaning up Bill's C style, I may have cleaned up some code
he didn't touch as well (in _ssl.c).
diff --git a/Lib/ssl.py b/Lib/ssl.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..17a48ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Lib/ssl.py
@@ -0,0 +1,252 @@
+# Wrapper module for _ssl, providing some additional facilities
+# implemented in Python.  Written by Bill Janssen.
+
+"""\
+This module provides some more Pythonic support for SSL.
+
+Object types:
+
+  sslsocket -- subtype of socket.socket which does SSL over the socket
+
+Exceptions:
+
+  sslerror -- exception raised for I/O errors
+
+Functions:
+
+  cert_time_to_seconds -- convert time string used for certificate
+                          notBefore and notAfter functions to integer
+                          seconds past the Epoch (the time values
+                          returned from time.time())
+
+  fetch_server_certificate (HOST, PORT) -- fetch the certificate provided
+                          by the server running on HOST at port PORT.  No
+                          validation of the certificate is performed.
+
+Integer constants:
+
+SSL_ERROR_ZERO_RETURN
+SSL_ERROR_WANT_READ
+SSL_ERROR_WANT_WRITE
+SSL_ERROR_WANT_X509_LOOKUP
+SSL_ERROR_SYSCALL
+SSL_ERROR_SSL
+SSL_ERROR_WANT_CONNECT
+
+SSL_ERROR_EOF
+SSL_ERROR_INVALID_ERROR_CODE
+
+The following group define certificate requirements that one side is
+allowing/requiring from the other side:
+
+CERT_NONE - no certificates from the other side are required (or will
+            be looked at if provided)
+CERT_OPTIONAL - certificates are not required, but if provided will be
+                validated, and if validation fails, the connection will
+                also fail
+CERT_REQUIRED - certificates are required, and will be validated, and
+                if validation fails, the connection will also fail
+
+The following constants identify various SSL protocol variants:
+
+PROTOCOL_SSLv2
+PROTOCOL_SSLv3
+PROTOCOL_SSLv23
+PROTOCOL_TLSv1
+"""
+
+import os, sys
+
+import _ssl             # if we can't import it, let the error propagate
+from socket import socket
+from _ssl import sslerror
+from _ssl import CERT_NONE, CERT_OPTIONAL, CERT_REQUIRED
+from _ssl import PROTOCOL_SSLv2, PROTOCOL_SSLv3, PROTOCOL_SSLv23, PROTOCOL_TLSv1
+
+# Root certs:
+#
+# The "ca_certs" argument to sslsocket() expects a file containing one or more
+# certificates that are roots of various certificate signing chains.  This file
+# contains the certificates in PEM format (RFC ) where each certificate is
+# encoded in base64 encoding and surrounded with a header and footer:
+# -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
+# ... (CA certificate in base64 encoding) ...
+# -----END CERTIFICATE-----
+# The various certificates in the file are just concatenated together:
+# -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
+# ... (CA certificate in base64 encoding) ...
+# -----END CERTIFICATE-----
+# -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
+# ... (a second CA certificate in base64 encoding) ...
+# -----END CERTIFICATE-----
+#
+# Some "standard" root certificates are available at
+#
+# http://www.thawte.com/roots/  (for Thawte roots)
+# http://www.verisign.com/support/roots.html  (for Verisign)
+
+class sslsocket (socket):
+
+    def __init__(self, sock, keyfile=None, certfile=None,
+                 server_side=False, cert_reqs=CERT_NONE,
+                 ssl_version=PROTOCOL_SSLv23, ca_certs=None):
+        socket.__init__(self, _sock=sock._sock)
+        if certfile and not keyfile:
+            keyfile = certfile
+        if server_side:
+            self._sslobj = _ssl.sslwrap(self._sock, 1, keyfile, certfile,
+                                        cert_reqs, ssl_version, ca_certs)
+        else:
+            # see if it's connected
+            try:
+                socket.getpeername(self)
+                # yes
+                self._sslobj = _ssl.sslwrap(self._sock, 0, keyfile, certfile,
+                                            cert_reqs, ssl_version, ca_certs)
+            except:
+                # no
+                self._sslobj = None
+        self.keyfile = keyfile
+        self.certfile = certfile
+        self.cert_reqs = cert_reqs
+        self.ssl_version = ssl_version
+        self.ca_certs = ca_certs
+
+    def read(self, len=1024):
+        return self._sslobj.read(len)
+
+    def write(self, data):
+        return self._sslobj.write(data)
+
+    def getpeercert(self):
+        return self._sslobj.peer_certificate()
+
+    def send (self, data, flags=0):
+        if flags != 0:
+            raise ValueError(
+                "non-zero flags not allowed in calls to send() on %s" %
+                self.__class__)
+        return self._sslobj.write(data)
+
+    def send_to (self, data, addr, flags=0):
+        raise ValueError("send_to not allowed on instances of %s" %
+                         self.__class__)
+
+    def sendall (self, data, flags=0):
+        if flags != 0:
+            raise ValueError(
+                "non-zero flags not allowed in calls to sendall() on %s" %
+                self.__class__)
+        return self._sslobj.write(data)
+
+    def recv (self, buflen=1024, flags=0):
+        if flags != 0:
+            raise ValueError(
+                "non-zero flags not allowed in calls to sendall() on %s" %
+                self.__class__)
+        return self._sslobj.read(data, buflen)
+
+    def recv_from (self, addr, buflen=1024, flags=0):
+        raise ValueError("recv_from not allowed on instances of %s" %
+                         self.__class__)
+
+    def shutdown(self):
+        if self._sslobj:
+            self._sslobj.shutdown()
+            self._sslobj = None
+        else:
+            socket.shutdown(self)
+
+    def close(self):
+        if self._sslobj:
+            self.shutdown()
+        else:
+            socket.close(self)
+
+    def connect(self, addr):
+        # Here we assume that the socket is client-side, and not
+        # connected at the time of the call.  We connect it, then wrap it.
+        if self._sslobj or (self.getsockname()[1] != 0):
+            raise ValueError("attempt to connect already-connected sslsocket!")
+        socket.connect(self, addr)
+        self._sslobj = _ssl.sslwrap(self._sock, 0, self.keyfile, self.certfile,
+                                    self.cert_reqs, self.ssl_version,
+                                    self.ca_certs)
+
+    def accept(self):
+        raise ValueError("accept() not supported on an sslsocket")
+
+
+# some utility functions
+
+def cert_time_to_seconds(cert_time):
+    import time
+    return time.mktime(time.strptime(cert_time, "%b %d %H:%M:%S %Y GMT"))
+
+# a replacement for the old socket.ssl function
+
+def sslwrap_simple (sock, keyfile=None, certfile=None):
+
+    return _ssl.sslwrap(sock._sock, 0, keyfile, certfile, CERT_NONE,
+                        PROTOCOL_SSLv23, None)
+
+# fetch the certificate that the server is providing in PEM form
+
+def fetch_server_certificate (host, port):
+
+    import re, tempfile, os
+
+    def subproc(cmd):
+        from subprocess import Popen, PIPE, STDOUT
+        proc = Popen(cmd, stdout=PIPE, stderr=STDOUT, shell=True)
+        status = proc.wait()
+        output = proc.stdout.read()
+        return status, output
+
+    def strip_to_x509_cert(certfile_contents, outfile=None):
+        m = re.search(r"^([-]+BEGIN CERTIFICATE[-]+[\r]*\n"
+                      r".*[\r]*^[-]+END CERTIFICATE[-]+)$",
+                      certfile_contents, re.MULTILINE | re.DOTALL)
+        if not m:
+            return None
+        else:
+            tn = tempfile.mktemp()
+            fp = open(tn, "w")
+            fp.write(m.group(1) + "\n")
+            fp.close()
+            try:
+                tn2 = (outfile or tempfile.mktemp())
+                status, output = subproc(r'openssl x509 -in "%s" -out "%s"' %
+                                         (tn, tn2))
+                if status != 0:
+                    raise OperationError(status, tsig, output)
+                fp = open(tn2, 'rb')
+                data = fp.read()
+                fp.close()
+                os.unlink(tn2)
+                return data
+            finally:
+                os.unlink(tn)
+
+    if sys.platform.startswith("win"):
+        tfile = tempfile.mktemp()
+        fp = open(tfile, "w")
+        fp.write("quit\n")
+        fp.close()
+        try:
+            status, output = subproc(
+                'openssl s_client -connect "%s:%s" -showcerts < "%s"' %
+                (host, port, tfile))
+        finally:
+            os.unlink(tfile)
+    else:
+        status, output = subproc(
+            'openssl s_client -connect "%s:%s" -showcerts < /dev/null' %
+            (host, port))
+    if status != 0:
+        raise OSError(status)
+    certtext = strip_to_x509_cert(output)
+    if not certtext:
+        raise ValueError("Invalid response received from server at %s:%s" %
+                         (host, port))
+    return certtext