diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 4c49f2fdf0a..9f1183b0c53 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -3665,6 +3665,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "msg",
  "net_traits",
  "openssl",
+ "openssl-sys",
  "percent-encoding",
  "pixels",
  "profile_traits",
diff --git a/components/net/Cargo.toml b/components/net/Cargo.toml
index 2c6513e44b1..7e3073bf123 100644
--- a/components/net/Cargo.toml
+++ b/components/net/Cargo.toml
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ license = "MPL-2.0"
 edition = "2018"
 publish = false
 autotests = false  # Inhibit lookup for tests/*.rs without [[test]] sections
+build = "build.rs"
 
 [lib]
 name = "net"
@@ -43,6 +44,7 @@ mime_guess = "2.0.0-alpha.6"
 msg = {path = "../msg"}
 net_traits = {path = "../net_traits"}
 openssl = "0.10"
+openssl-sys = "0.9"
 percent-encoding = "2.0"
 pixels = {path = "../pixels"}
 profile_traits = {path = "../profile_traits"}
diff --git a/components/net/build.rs b/components/net/build.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..4a75c1b4bbb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/components/net/build.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+/* This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
+ * License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
+ * file, You can obtain one at https://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/. */
+
+fn main() {
+    let version =
+        std::env::var("DEP_OPENSSL_VERSION_NUMBER").expect("missing DEP_OPENSSL_VERSION_NUMBER");
+    let actual = u64::from_str_radix(&version, 16).unwrap();
+    let minimum = 0x10101000;
+    if actual < minimum {
+        panic!(
+            "Your OpenSSL version is older than 1.1.1 ({:x}), you have: {:x}",
+            minimum, actual
+        );
+    }
+}