diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 70fb0323bb14b67f157d02f6017bc08a6cefaf23..40ac3eb320098673275e7ee864731e7f8cd8090d 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -4,9 +4,7 @@ RUN apk add \
  git \
  build-base \
  libxml2-dev \
- libxslt-dev \
- libffi-dev \
- openssl-dev
+ libxslt-dev
 
 # Only to use the docker cache and optimize the build time
 WORKDIR /src
@@ -24,7 +22,6 @@ LABEL description="A privacy-respecting, hackable metasearch engine."
 RUN apk add \
  ca-certificates \
  libxslt \
- openssl \
 && pip install coverage
 
 COPY --from=builder /install/ /usr/local/
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index fc7eac0050a89571a9fbc3abeba030fe65e126f8..ba135f738b3a6463b9b89de931c79b9b346bf15d 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,11 +1,8 @@
-redis==3.2.1
-certifi==2017.11.5
 flask==1.0.2
 flask-babel==0.11.2
-lxml==4.2.3
-idna==2.7
-pygments==2.1.3
-pyopenssl==18.0.0
-python-dateutil==2.7.3
-pyyaml==3.13
-requests[socks]==2.19.1
+lxml==4.3.3
+pygments==2.3.1
+python-dateutil==2.8.0
+pyyaml==5.1
+requests[socks]==2.21.0
+redis==3.2.1
diff --git a/searx/__init__.py b/searx/__init__.py
index 7324c1e4b1eded5819d14659dc8f9a39bbc724b2..d0bb7126d3998ea62370cc82ae8b7f9796e8a194 100644
--- a/searx/__init__.py
+++ b/searx/__init__.py
@@ -15,18 +15,11 @@ along with searx. If not, see < http://www.gnu.org/licenses/ >.
 (C) 2013- by Adam Tauber, <asciimoo@gmail.com>
 '''
 
-import certifi
 import logging
 from os import environ
 from os.path import realpath, dirname, join, abspath, isfile
 from io import open
-from ssl import OPENSSL_VERSION_INFO, OPENSSL_VERSION
-try:
-    from yaml import load
-except ImportError:
-    from sys import exit, stderr
-    stderr.write('[E] install pyyaml\n')
-    exit(2)
+from yaml import load
 
 searx_dir = abspath(dirname(__file__))
 engine_dir = dirname(realpath(__file__))
@@ -73,12 +66,6 @@ logging.basicConfig(level=getattr(logging, searx_loglevel))
 
 logger = logging.getLogger('searx')
 logger.debug('read configuration from %s', settings_path)
-# Workaround for openssl versions <1.0.2
-# https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi/issues/26
-if OPENSSL_VERSION_INFO[0:3] < (1, 0, 2):
-    if hasattr(certifi, 'old_where'):
-        environ['REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE'] = certifi.old_where()
-    logger.warning('You are using an old openssl version({0}), please upgrade above 1.0.2!'.format(OPENSSL_VERSION))
 
 logger.info('Initialisation done')
 
diff --git a/searx/webapp.py b/searx/webapp.py
index 84f9a504edc215a4d9648510110205d5c57b4410..d7e773829f91ec7d61b09327aeebe62f4e29c3e7 100644
--- a/searx/webapp.py
+++ b/searx/webapp.py
@@ -37,16 +37,11 @@ from searx import logger
 
 logger = logger.getChild('webapp')
 
-try:
-    from pygments import highlight
-    from pygments.lexers import get_lexer_by_name
-    from pygments.util import ClassNotFound
-    from pygments.formatters import HtmlFormatter
-except ImportError:
-    logger.critical("cannot import dependency: pygments")
-    from sys import exit
-
-    exit(1)
+from pygments import highlight
+from pygments.lexers import get_lexer_by_name
+from pygments.util import ClassNotFound
+from pygments.formatters import HtmlFormatter
+
 from html import escape
 from datetime import datetime, timedelta
 from werkzeug.contrib.fixers import ProxyFix
@@ -80,14 +75,6 @@ from searx.url_utils import urlencode, urlparse, urljoin
 from searx.utils import new_hmac
 import threading
 
-# check if the pyopenssl package is installed.
-# It is needed for SSL connection without trouble, see #298
-try:
-    import OpenSSL.SSL  # NOQA
-except ImportError:
-    logger.critical("The pyopenssl package has to be installed.\n"
-                    "Some HTTPS connections will fail")
-
 from io import StringIO
 
 # serve pages with HTTP/1.1