[php-src] Issue #20224: [Windows] PHP 8.4 shows degraded performance when built with OpenSSL 3.0.* (suggest using OpenSSL 3.1+)

Issue: https://github.com/php/php-src/issues/20224 Author: abdul-khan-lrn ### Description **Description** When upgrading from PHP 8.1 to PHP 8.4, we observed a significant slowdown in HTTPS requests made using cURL. The same code that performs normally on PHP 8.1 takes almost 10× longer on PHP 8.4. **Reproduction Code** ```php <?php // SSL verification ON curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, TRUE); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 2); ``` **Environment** PHP 8.4.13 (Windows, NTS x64, built with Visual C++ 2022) OpenSSL 3.0.16 (11 Feb 2025) — as bundled with the official Windows build cURL used with HTTPS endpoints (SSL verification ON) **Observed Behavior** HTTPS requests via curl_exec() are approximately 10× slower in PHP 8.4 compared to PHP 8.1. The slowdown appears only when SSL verification is enabled. **Analysis** OpenSSL 3.0 is known to have performance regressions related to locking and property parsing: [OpenSSL issue #17627](https://github.com/openssl/openssl/issues/17627?utm_source=chatgpt.com) Since the current PHP 8.4 Windows binaries are built with OpenSSL 3.0.16, this performance degradation is likely inherited from that version. **Suggested Resolution** Please consider building PHP 8.4 for Windows with OpenSSL 3.1 or later, which includes performance improvements addressing the above issues. ### PHP Version ```plain PS C:\Users\vagrant> php -v PHP 8.4.13 (cli) (built: Sep 23 2025 14:36:17) (NTS Visual C++ 2022 x64) Copyright (c) The PHP Group Zend Engine v4.4.13, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies with Zend OPcache v8.4.13, Copyright (c), by Zend Technologies PS C:\Users\vagrant> php -i | findstr /R /C:"OpenSSL" /C:"openssl" SSL Version => OpenSSL/3.0.16 openssl OpenSSL support => enabled OpenSSL Library Version => OpenSSL 3.0.16 11 Feb 2025 OpenSSL Header Version => OpenSSL 3.0.16 11 Feb 2025 Openssl default config => C:\Program Files\Common Files\SSL/openssl.cnf openssl.cafile => C:\Program Files\PHP\8.4.13\CACert\cacert.pem => C:\Program Files\PHP\8.4.13\CACert\cacert.pem openssl.capath => no value => no value OpenSSL support => enabled PS C:\Users\vagrant> ``` ### Operating System Windows