diff --git a/utils/generate-cyclonedx b/utils/generate-cyclonedx
index 611a20127d..7cfeefbc5b 100755
--- a/utils/generate-cyclonedx
+++ b/utils/generate-cyclonedx
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 
 
 import argparse
+import importlib.util
 import json
 import os
 from pathlib import Path
@@ -44,6 +45,11 @@ VULN_WITH_PEDIGREE = set()
 SPDX_LICENSES = []
 
 if not SPDX_SCHEMA_PATH.exists():
+    if not importlib.util.find_spec("_ssl"):
+        print(f"ssl module required for downloading {SPDX_SCHEMA_URL}. Try enabling BR2_PACKAGE_HOST_PYTHON3_SSL.",
+              file=sys.stderr)
+        exit(1)
+
     # Download the CycloneDX SPDX schema JSON, and cache it locally
     cyclonedxpath.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
     urllib.request.urlretrieve(SPDX_SCHEMA_URL, SPDX_SCHEMA_PATH)