diff --git a/cmake/SalmonDependencies.cmake b/cmake/SalmonDependencies.cmake
index b6bebe0..a67571a 100644
--- a/cmake/SalmonDependencies.cmake
+++ b/cmake/SalmonDependencies.cmake
@@ -86,6 +86,8 @@ if(ZLIBNG_FOUND)
   set(SALMON_ZLIB_LIBRARIES ZLIBNG::ZLIBNG)
   set(ZLIB_INCLUDE_DIR ${ZLIBNG_INCLUDE_DIR})
   set(ZLIB_LIBRARY ZLIBNG::ZLIBNG)
+  add_library(zlibstatic ALIAS ${ZLIB_LIBRARY})
+  message(STATUS "Created zlibstatic alias for pufferfish embedded mode")
 elseif(SALMON_FETCH_MISSING_DEPS)
   message(STATUS "zlib-ng not found; fetching pinned zlib-ng release in compatibility mode")
   set(ZLIB_COMPAT ON CACHE BOOL "" FORCE)
@@ -421,6 +423,7 @@ else()
   set(SALMON_CURL_LIBRARIES "" CACHE INTERNAL "" FORCE)
 endif()
 if(SALMON_USE_SYSTEM_DEPS)
+  find_package(OpenSSL REQUIRED)
   find_package(HTSlib QUIET)
 endif()
 if(HTSlib_FOUND)