https://github.com/nagios-plugins/nagios-plugins/issues/778

--- nagios-plugins-2.4.12/plugins/check_http.c.orig
+++ nagios-plugins-2.4.12/plugins/check_http.c
@@ -1080,9 +1080,9 @@
     if (use_ssl == TRUE) {
         gettimeofday (&tv_temp, NULL);
         result = np_net_ssl_init_with_hostname_version_and_cert(sd, (use_sni ? host_name : NULL), ssl_version, client_cert, client_privkey);
-        if (verbose) printf ("SSL initialized\n");
         if (result != STATE_OK)
-            die (STATE_CRITICAL, NULL);
+            exit (STATE_CRITICAL);
+        if (verbose) printf ("SSL initialized\n");
         microsec_ssl = deltime (tv_temp);
         elapsed_time_ssl = (double)microsec_ssl / 1.0e6;
         if (check_cert == TRUE) {