diff --git a/cpython-unix/build-openssl-3.5.sh b/cpython-unix/build-openssl-3.5.sh
index ea7d5c60..952098c5 100755
--- a/cpython-unix/build-openssl-3.5.sh
+++ b/cpython-unix/build-openssl-3.5.sh
@@ -13,12 +13,6 @@ tar -xf openssl-${OPENSSL_3_5_VERSION}.tar.gz
 
 pushd openssl-${OPENSSL_3_5_VERSION}
 
-# hardcode the vlenb CSR address (0xc22) as our GCC version doesn't know it
-# https://github.com/riscv/riscv-isa-manual/blob/c001fa237cdd8b6079384044462a89eb0e3fd9cf/src/v-st-ext.adoc?plain=1#L74
-if [[ "${TARGET_TRIPLE}" = "riscv64-unknown-linux-gnu" ]]; then
-    patch -p1 -i "${ROOT}/patch-openssl-3.5-riscv-vlenb-register.patch"
-fi
-
 # Otherwise it gets set to /tools/deps/ssl by default.
 case "${TARGET_TRIPLE}" in
     *apple*)
diff --git a/cpython-unix/build.py b/cpython-unix/build.py
index 1fbb019b..662d7021 100755
--- a/cpython-unix/build.py
+++ b/cpython-unix/build.py
@@ -274,13 +274,10 @@ def simple_build(
 
         add_target_env(env, host_platform, target_triple, build_env)
 
-        # for OpenSSL, set the OPENSSL_TARGET environment variable and copy in patches
+        # for OpenSSL, set the OPENSSL_TARGET environment variable
         if entry.startswith("openssl-"):
             settings = get_targets(TARGETS_CONFIG)[target_triple]
             env["OPENSSL_TARGET"] = settings["openssl_target"]
-            build_env.copy_file(
-                SUPPORT / "patch-openssl-3.5-riscv-vlenb-register.patch"
-            )
 
         build_env.run("build-%s.sh" % entry, environment=env)
 
diff --git a/cpython-unix/patch-openssl-3.5-riscv-vlenb-register.patch b/cpython-unix/patch-openssl-3.5-riscv-vlenb-register.patch
deleted file mode 100644
index dacedeef..00000000
--- a/cpython-unix/patch-openssl-3.5-riscv-vlenb-register.patch
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,15 +0,0 @@
-diff --git a/crypto/riscv64cpuid.pl b/crypto/riscv64cpuid.pl
-index 5dcdc5c584..7751ad50d9 100644
---- a/crypto/riscv64cpuid.pl
-+++ b/crypto/riscv64cpuid.pl
-@@ -94,8 +94,8 @@ $code .= <<___;
- .globl riscv_vlen_asm
- .type riscv_vlen_asm,\@function
- riscv_vlen_asm:
--    csrr $ret, vlenb
--    slli $ret, $ret, 3
-+    csrr a0, 0xc22
-+    slli a0, a0, 3
-     ret
- .size riscv_vlen_asm,.-riscv_vlen_asm
- ___
diff --git a/pythonbuild/downloads.py b/pythonbuild/downloads.py
index c4c12516..d72d7fde 100644
--- a/pythonbuild/downloads.py
+++ b/pythonbuild/downloads.py
@@ -262,10 +262,10 @@
     },
     # Remember to update OPENSSL_VERSION_INFO in verify_distribution.py whenever upgrading.
     "openssl-3.5": {
-        "url": "https://github.com/openssl/openssl/releases/download/openssl-3.5.2/openssl-3.5.2.tar.gz",
-        "size": 53180161,
-        "sha256": "c53a47e5e441c930c3928cf7bf6fb00e5d129b630e0aa873b08258656e7345ec",
-        "version": "3.5.2",
+        "url": "https://github.com/openssl/openssl/releases/download/openssl-3.5.3/openssl-3.5.3.tar.gz",
+        "size": 53183370,
+        "sha256": "c9489d2abcf943cdc8329a57092331c598a402938054dc3a22218aea8a8ec3bf",
+        "version": "3.5.3",
         "library_names": ["crypto", "ssl"],
         "licenses": ["Apache-2.0"],
         "license_file": "LICENSE.openssl-3.txt",
diff --git a/src/verify_distribution.py b/src/verify_distribution.py
index a4704f3f..709394f3 100644
--- a/src/verify_distribution.py
+++ b/src/verify_distribution.py
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ def test_ssl(self):
         if os.name == "nt" and sys.version_info[0:2] < (3, 11):
             wanted_version = (1, 1, 1, 23, 15)
         else:
-            wanted_version = (3, 5, 0, 2, 0)
+            wanted_version = (3, 5, 0, 3, 15)
 
         self.assertEqual(ssl.OPENSSL_VERSION_INFO, wanted_version)