diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index e88fb04..0897a8b 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ option(TRX_ENABLE_INSTALL "Install trx-cpp targets" ${TRX_IS_TOP_LEVEL})
 option(TRX_BUILD_DOCS "Build API documentation with Doxygen/Sphinx" OFF)
 option(TRX_ENABLE_NIFTI "Enable optional NIfTI header utilities" ${TRX_BUILD_EXAMPLES})
 option(TRX_FETCH_EIGEN "Fetch Eigen3 via FetchContent if not found" ON)
+option(TRX_LIBZIP_ENABLE_OPENSSL "Enable OpenSSL backend in vendored libzip" OFF)
 
 if(TRX_ENABLE_CLANG_TIDY)
     set(CMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS ON)
@@ -92,6 +93,7 @@ else()
         set(ENABLE_BZIP2 OFF)
         set(ENABLE_LZMA OFF)
         set(ENABLE_ZSTD OFF)
+        set(ENABLE_OPENSSL ${TRX_LIBZIP_ENABLE_OPENSSL})
         set(_saved_BUILD_SHARED_LIBS ${BUILD_SHARED_LIBS})
         set(BUILD_SHARED_LIBS OFF)
         FetchContent_Declare(