diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 5cf814453..96ec2fb3e 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ resolver = "2"
 
 [workspace.package]
 version = "5.0.0-alpha.3"
+rust-version = "1.85"
 repository = "https://github.com/cloudflare/boring"
 edition = "2021"
 
diff --git a/boring-sys/Cargo.toml b/boring-sys/Cargo.toml
index 6def757f8..cecc83f51 100644
--- a/boring-sys/Cargo.toml
+++ b/boring-sys/Cargo.toml
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ build = "build/main.rs"
 readme = "README.md"
 categories = ["cryptography", "external-ffi-bindings"]
 edition = { workspace = true }
-rust-version = "1.77"
+rust-version = { workspace = true }
 include = [
     "/*.md",
     "/*.toml",
diff --git a/boring-sys/src/lib.rs b/boring-sys/src/lib.rs
index 650b3842b..57ceffc76 100644
--- a/boring-sys/src/lib.rs
+++ b/boring-sys/src/lib.rs
@@ -24,6 +24,15 @@ use std::os::raw::{c_char, c_int, c_uint, c_ulong};
 mod generated {
     include!(concat!(env!("OUT_DIR"), "/bindings.rs"));
 }
+
+// explicitly require presence of some symbols to check if the bindings worked
+pub use generated::{ssl_compliance_policy_t, ERR_add_error_data, SSL_set1_groups}; // if these are missing, your include path is incorrect or has a wrong version of boringssl
+pub use generated::{BIO_new, OPENSSL_free, SSL_ERROR_NONE}; // if these are missing, your include path is incorrect
+#[cfg(feature = "fips")]
+pub use generated::{FIPS_mode, SSL_CTX_set_compliance_policy}; // your include path is incorrect or has a version of boringssl without FIPS support
+#[cfg(feature = "rpk")]
+pub use generated::{SSL_CREDENTIAL_new_raw_public_key, SSL_CREDENTIAL_set1_spki}; // your include path is incorrect or has a version of boringssl without rpk support
+
 pub use generated::*;
 
 #[cfg(target_pointer_width = "64")]
diff --git a/boring/Cargo.toml b/boring/Cargo.toml
index 45cfd672d..465cbb294 100644
--- a/boring/Cargo.toml
+++ b/boring/Cargo.toml
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ readme = "README.md"
 keywords = ["crypto", "tls", "ssl", "dtls"]
 categories = ["cryptography", "api-bindings"]
 edition = { workspace = true }
-rust-version = "1.80"
+rust-version = { workspace = true }
 
 [package.metadata.docs.rs]
 features = ["rpk", "underscore-wildcards"]
diff --git a/hyper-boring/Cargo.toml b/hyper-boring/Cargo.toml
index d0f08aab1..9963e6ee6 100644
--- a/hyper-boring/Cargo.toml
+++ b/hyper-boring/Cargo.toml
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ repository = { workspace = true }
 documentation = "https://docs.rs/hyper-boring"
 readme = "README.md"
 exclude = ["test/*"]
-rust-version = "1.80"
+rust-version = { workspace = true }
 
 [package.metadata.docs.rs]
 features = []
diff --git a/tokio-boring/Cargo.toml b/tokio-boring/Cargo.toml
index 151638647..18d2f2b20 100644
--- a/tokio-boring/Cargo.toml
+++ b/tokio-boring/Cargo.toml
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ version = { workspace = true }
 authors = ["Alex Crichton <alex@alexcrichton.com>", "Ivan Nikulin <ifaaan@gmail.com>"]
 license = "MIT OR Apache-2.0"
 edition = { workspace = true }
+rust-version = { workspace = true }
 repository = { workspace = true }
 homepage = "https://github.com/cloudflare/boring"
 documentation = "https://docs.rs/tokio-boring"