diff --git a/activesupport/test/message_encryptor_test.rb b/activesupport/test/message_encryptor_test.rb
index ed3461571a6d9..1e16c9eae28a1 100644
--- a/activesupport/test/message_encryptor_test.rb
+++ b/activesupport/test/message_encryptor_test.rb
@@ -1,5 +1,12 @@
 require 'abstract_unit'
 
+begin
+  require 'openssl'
+  OpenSSL::Digest::SHA1
+rescue LoadError, NameError
+  $stderr.puts "Skipping MessageEncryptor test: broken OpenSSL install"
+else
+
 class MessageEncryptorTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
   def setup
     @encryptor = ActiveSupport::MessageEncryptor.new(ActiveSupport::SecureRandom.hex(64))
@@ -44,3 +51,5 @@ def munge(base64_string)
       ActiveSupport::Base64.encode64s(bits)
     end
 end
+
+end