Error Updating Python3 pip AttributeError: module 'lib' has no attribute 'OpenSSL_add_all_algorithms'

Question

I'm having an error when installing/updating any pip module in python3. Purging and reinstalling pip and every package I can thing of hasn't helped. Here's the error that I get in response to running python -m pip install --upgrade pip specifically (but the error is the same for attempting to install or update any pip module):

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3.8/runpy.py", line 194, in _run_module_as_main
    return _run_code(code, main_globals, None,
  File "/usr/lib/python3.8/runpy.py", line 87, in _run_code
    exec(code, run_globals)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip/__main__.py", line 16, in <module>
    from pip._internal.cli.main import main as _main  # isort:skip # noqa
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip/_internal/cli/main.py", line 10, in <module>
    from pip._internal.cli.autocompletion import autocomplete
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip/_internal/cli/autocompletion.py", line 9, in <module>
    from pip._internal.cli.main_parser import create_main_parser
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip/_internal/cli/main_parser.py", line 7, in <module>
    from pip._internal.cli import cmdoptions
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip/_internal/cli/cmdoptions.py", line 24, in <module>
    from pip._internal.exceptions import CommandError
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip/_internal/exceptions.py", line 10, in <module>
    from pip._vendor.six import iteritems
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip/_vendor/__init__.py", line 65, in <module>
    vendored("cachecontrol")
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip/_vendor/__init__.py", line 36, in vendored
    __import__(modulename, globals(), locals(), level=0)
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 991, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 975, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 655, in _load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 618, in _load_backward_compatible
  File "<frozen zipimport>", line 259, in load_module
  File "/usr/share/python-wheels/CacheControl-0.12.6-py2.py3-none-any.whl/cachecontrol/__init__.py", line 9, in <module>
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 991, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 975, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 655, in _load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 618, in _load_backward_compatible
  File "<frozen zipimport>", line 259, in load_module
  File "/usr/share/python-wheels/CacheControl-0.12.6-py2.py3-none-any.whl/cachecontrol/wrapper.py", line 1, in <module>
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 991, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 975, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 655, in _load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 618, in _load_backward_compatible
  File "<frozen zipimport>", line 259, in load_module
  File "/usr/share/python-wheels/CacheControl-0.12.6-py2.py3-none-any.whl/cachecontrol/adapter.py", line 5, in <module>
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 991, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 975, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 655, in _load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 618, in _load_backward_compatible
  File "<frozen zipimport>", line 259, in load_module
  File "/usr/share/python-wheels/requests-2.22.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl/requests/__init__.py", line 95, in <module>
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 991, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 975, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 655, in _load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 618, in _load_backward_compatible
  File "<frozen zipimport>", line 259, in load_module
  File "/usr/share/python-wheels/urllib3-1.25.8-py2.py3-none-any.whl/urllib3/contrib/pyopenssl.py", line 46, in <module>
  File "/home/patrick/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/OpenSSL/__init__.py", line 8, in <module>
    from OpenSSL import crypto, SSL
  File "/home/patrick/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/OpenSSL/crypto.py", line 3268, in <module>
    _lib.OpenSSL_add_all_algorithms()
AttributeError: module 'lib' has no attribute 'OpenSSL_add_all_algorithms'
Error in sys.excepthook:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport_python_hook.py", line 72, in apport_excepthook
    from apport.fileutils import likely_packaged, get_recent_crashes
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport/__init__.py", line 5, in <module>
    from apport.report import Report
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport/report.py", line 32, in <module>
    import apport.fileutils
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport/fileutils.py", line 12, in <module>
    import os, glob, subprocess, os.path, time, pwd, sys, requests_unixsocket
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/requests_unixsocket/__init__.py", line 1, in <module>
    import requests
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 991, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 975, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 655, in _load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 618, in _load_backward_compatible
  File "<frozen zipimport>", line 259, in load_module
  File "/usr/share/python-wheels/requests-2.22.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl/requests/__init__.py", line 95, in <module>
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 991, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 975, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 655, in _load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 618, in _load_backward_compatible
  File "<frozen zipimport>", line 259, in load_module
  File "/usr/share/python-wheels/urllib3-1.25.8-py2.py3-none-any.whl/urllib3/contrib/pyopenssl.py", line 46, in <module>
  File "/home/patrick/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/OpenSSL/__init__.py", line 8, in <module>
    from OpenSSL import crypto, SSL
  File "/home/patrick/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/OpenSSL/crypto.py", line 3268, in <module>
    _lib.OpenSSL_add_all_algorithms()
AttributeError: module 'lib' has no attribute 'OpenSSL_add_all_algorithms'

Original exception was:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3.8/runpy.py", line 194, in _run_module_as_main
    return _run_code(code, main_globals, None,
  File "/usr/lib/python3.8/runpy.py", line 87, in _run_code
    exec(code, run_globals)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip/__main__.py", line 16, in <module>
    from pip._internal.cli.main import main as _main  # isort:skip # noqa
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip/_internal/cli/main.py", line 10, in <module>
    from pip._internal.cli.autocompletion import autocomplete
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip/_internal/cli/autocompletion.py", line 9, in <module>
    from pip._internal.cli.main_parser import create_main_parser
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip/_internal/cli/main_parser.py", line 7, in <module>
    from pip._internal.cli import cmdoptions
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip/_internal/cli/cmdoptions.py", line 24, in <module>
    from pip._internal.exceptions import CommandError
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip/_internal/exceptions.py", line 10, in <module>
    from pip._vendor.six import iteritems
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip/_vendor/__init__.py", line 65, in <module>
    vendored("cachecontrol")
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip/_vendor/__init__.py", line 36, in vendored
    __import__(modulename, globals(), locals(), level=0)
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 991, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 975, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 655, in _load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 618, in _load_backward_compatible
  File "<frozen zipimport>", line 259, in load_module
  File "/usr/share/python-wheels/CacheControl-0.12.6-py2.py3-none-any.whl/cachecontrol/__init__.py", line 9, in <module>
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 991, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 975, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 655, in _load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 618, in _load_backward_compatible
  File "<frozen zipimport>", line 259, in load_module
  File "/usr/share/python-wheels/CacheControl-0.12.6-py2.py3-none-any.whl/cachecontrol/wrapper.py", line 1, in <module>
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 991, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 975, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 655, in _load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 618, in _load_backward_compatible
  File "<frozen zipimport>", line 259, in load_module
  File "/usr/share/python-wheels/CacheControl-0.12.6-py2.py3-none-any.whl/cachecontrol/adapter.py", line 5, in <module>
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 991, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 975, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 655, in _load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 618, in _load_backward_compatible
  File "<frozen zipimport>", line 259, in load_module
  File "/usr/share/python-wheels/requests-2.22.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl/requests/__init__.py", line 95, in <module>
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 991, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 975, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 655, in _load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 618, in _load_backward_compatible
  File "<frozen zipimport>", line 259, in load_module
  File "/usr/share/python-wheels/urllib3-1.25.8-py2.py3-none-any.whl/urllib3/contrib/pyopenssl.py", line 46, in <module>
  File "/home/patrick/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/OpenSSL/__init__.py", line 8, in <module>
    from OpenSSL import crypto, SSL
  File "/home/patrick/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/OpenSSL/crypto.py", line 3268, in <module>
    _lib.OpenSSL_add_all_algorithms()
AttributeError: module 'lib' has no attribute 'OpenSSL_add_all_algorithms'

I'm running Ubuntu 20.04 in WSL. Python openssl is already installed.

sudo apt install python3-openssl
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
python3-openssl is already the newest version (19.0.0-1build1).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

My assumption is that I need to re-install some stuff, but I'm not sure what. I've tried the obvious stuff like python3-openssl, libssl-dev, libffi-dev, and python3-pip itself and python3 alltogether.

Asoka

How you are getting that error? – Goodnight

Sorry, I was getting it after running python -m pip install --upgrade pip. I'll update the question to make that more clear. – Asoka

I found that this solution works: #75866319 – Metamerism

Answer 1

As version 39.0.0 presented this bug, downgrading the cryptography package solves this, without purging or touching your OS.

pip install cryptography==38.0.4 to downgrade from 39.0.0 which presented this error

EDIT per @thomas,

The error is a result of incompatibility between cryptography and pyopenssl, so if possible, also upgrading to openssl>22.1.0 should work:

pip install -U pyopenssl cryptography

Abbieabbot

More specifically, it seems to be an incompatibility between cryptography and pyopenssl, as mentioned here: github.com/pyca/cryptography/issues/7959. Downgrading the former works, but even better probably to upgrade openssl to >22.1.0 (if not in version conflict with other dependencies). – Miru

to upgrade both: python3 -m pip install -U pyOpenSSL cryptography – Homoousian

How can I downgrade cryptography, the pip command itself not working? throwing the same error message as mentioned. – Rosado

Upgraded pyopenssl to 22.1.0, cryptography was automatically downgraded to 38.0.4 and conda now works fine. – Alainealair

@Rosado See #75866319 ; download cryptography-38.0.4-pp39-pypy39_pp73-manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl from pypi.org/project/cryptography/38.0.4/#files – Tractile

Answer 2

Another solution would be to simply pip remove the pyOpenSSL and then install it again:

pip uninstall pyOpenSSL
pip install pyOpenSSL

Bertilla

Answer 3

DANGER: This solution is only suitable for Ubuntu in WSL. It's what I run, but follow-up from other users has confirmed that it can completely break any installed desktop environment.

What I needed to do was to purge the apps, and delete ~/.local/lib/python3.8. This was the step that I'd been missing.

So in the end, the fix was:

sudo apt purge python3 python3-pip python3-openssl
rm -rf ~/.local/lib/python3.8
sudo apt install libssl-dev libffi-dev python3 python3-pip python3-openssl

Then, I could run python -m pip install --upgrade pip without error.

Asoka

Hey Patrick, thanks for the answer! Can you mark it as an answer? For future occurrences accepting answers (even your own ones): How can I accept an answer and which one should I choose? – Greyback

don't follow this answer on ubuntu. As it uninstalls many desktop apps including gnome. it created a lot of trouble for me – Bigeye

Handle with care! This answer is very dangerous! Since you remove python3, you will also remove ALL the packages relying on it, i.e. MOST of your computer packages. I do not recommend it! – Pericycle

DON'T DO THIS IF YOU ARE ON A SERVER. – Sambo

Answer 4

first :

python -m pip install --upgrade pip

then :

pip install -U pyopenssl cryptography

Dominquedominquez