diff --git a/lib/default.php b/lib/default.php
index dcf225d1fa..45a4560ff3 100644
--- a/lib/default.php
+++ b/lib/default.php
@@ -315,6 +315,7 @@ $default =
               'members' => true,
               'peopletag' => true),
         'http' => // HTTP client settings when contacting other sites
-        array('ssl_cafile' => false // To enable SSL cert validation, point to a CA bundle (eg '/usr/lib/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt')
+        array('ssl_cafile' => false, // To enable SSL cert validation, point to a CA bundle (eg '/usr/lib/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt')
+              'curl' => false, // Use CURL backend for HTTP fetches if available. (If not, PHP's socket streams will be used.)
               ),
         );
diff --git a/lib/httpclient.php b/lib/httpclient.php
index b69f718e5f..514a5afeb2 100644
--- a/lib/httpclient.php
+++ b/lib/httpclient.php
@@ -145,6 +145,10 @@ class HTTPClient extends HTTP_Request2
             $this->config['ssl_verify_peer'] = false;
         }
 
+        if (common_config('http', 'curl') && extension_loaded('curl')) {
+            $this->config['adapter'] = 'HTTP_Request2_Adapter_Curl';
+        }
+
         parent::__construct($url, $method, $config);
         $this->setHeader('User-Agent', $this->userAgent());
     }
@@ -204,6 +208,15 @@ class HTTPClient extends HTTP_Request2
     protected function doRequest($url, $method, $headers)
     {
         $this->setUrl($url);
+
+        // Workaround for HTTP_Request2 not setting up SNI in socket contexts;
+        // This fixes cert validation for SSL virtual hosts using SNI.
+        // Requires PHP 5.3.2 or later and OpenSSL with SNI support.
+        if ($this->url->getScheme() == 'https' && defined('OPENSSL_TLSEXT_SERVER_NAME')) {
+            $this->config['ssl_SNI_enabled'] = true;
+            $this->config['ssl_SNI_server_name'] = $this->url->getHost();
+        }
+
         $this->setMethod($method);
         if ($headers) {
             foreach ($headers as $header) {