diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2024-03-27-21-05-52.gh-issue-117310.Bt2wox.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2024-03-27-21-05-52.gh-issue-117310.Bt2wox.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..429b890b8b609a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2024-03-27-21-05-52.gh-issue-117310.Bt2wox.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+Fixed an unlikely early & extra ``Py_DECREF`` triggered crash in :mod:`ssl`
+when creating a new ``_ssl._SSLContext`` if CPython was built implausibly such
+that the default cipher list is empty **or** the SSL library it was linked
+against reports a failure from its C ``SSL_CTX_set_cipher_list()`` API.
diff --git a/Modules/_ssl.c b/Modules/_ssl.c
index 2ee7db677b2094..120c739e196732 100644
--- a/Modules/_ssl.c
+++ b/Modules/_ssl.c
@@ -3165,7 +3165,6 @@ _ssl__SSLContext_impl(PyTypeObject *type, int proto_version)
         result = SSL_CTX_set_cipher_list(ctx, "HIGH:!aNULL:!eNULL");
     }
     if (result == 0) {
-        Py_DECREF(self);
         ERR_clear_error();
         PyErr_SetString(get_state_ctx(self)->PySSLErrorObject,
                         "No cipher can be selected.");