diff --git a/releases/portage/stages-qemu/package.mask/releng/openssl b/releases/portage/stages-qemu/package.mask/releng/openssl
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c97d1ab4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releases/portage/stages-qemu/package.mask/releng/openssl
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+# this version barfs on lots of minor arches, let's not try
+# to update to it
+=dev-libs/openssl-3.0.7-r1
diff --git a/releases/portage/stages/package.mask/releng/openssl b/releases/portage/stages/package.mask/releng/openssl
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c97d1ab4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releases/portage/stages/package.mask/releng/openssl
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+# this version barfs on lots of minor arches, let's not try
+# to update to it
+=dev-libs/openssl-3.0.7-r1