Warning
This NSS documentation was just imported from our legacy MDN repository. It currently is very deprecated and likely incorrect or broken in many places.
More Documentation¶
Network Security Services (NSS) is a set of libraries designed to support cross-platform development of security-enabled client and server applications. Applications built with NSS can support SSL v3, TLS, PKCS #5, PKCS #7, PKCS #11, PKCS #12, S/MIME, X.509 v3 certificates, and other security standards.
For detailed information on standards supported, see mozilla_projects_nss_overview. For a list of frequently asked questions, see the mozilla_projects_nss_faq.
NSS is available under the Mozilla Public License. For information on downloading NSS releases as tar files, see mozilla_projects_nss_nss_sources_building_testing.
If you’re a developer and would like to contribute to NSS, you might want to read the documents mozilla_projects_nss_an_overview_of_nss_internals and mozilla_projects_nss_getting_started_with_nss.
Background Information
- mozilla_projects_nss_overview
Provides a brief summary of NSS and its capabilities.
- mozilla_projects_nss_faq
Answers basic questions about NSS.
- Introduction to Public-Key Cryptography
Explains the basic concepts of public-key cryptography that underlie NSS.
- Introduction to SSL
Introduces the SSL protocol, including information about cryptographic ciphers supported by SSL and the steps involved in the SSL handshake.
Getting Started
- mozilla_projects_nss_nss_releases
This page contains information about the current and past releases of NSS.
- mozilla_projects_nss_nss_sources_building_testing
Instructions on how to build NSS on the different supported platforms.
- Get Mozilla Source Code Using Mercurial
Information about with working with Mercurial.
- Get Mozilla Source Code Using CVS (deprecated)
Old deprecated CVS documentation.
NSS APIs
- mozilla_projects_nss_introduction_to_network_security_services
Provides an overview of the NSS libraries and what you need to know to use them.
- mozilla_projects_nss_ssl_functions
Summarizes the SSL APIs exported by the NSS shared libraries.
- mozilla_projects_nss_reference
API used to invoke SSL operations.
- mozilla_projects_nss_nss_api_guidelines
Explains how the libraries and code are organized, and guidelines for developing code (naming conventions, error handling, thread safety, etc.)
- mozilla_projects_nss_nss_tech_notes
Links to NSS technical notes, which provide latest information about new NSS features and supplementary documentation for advanced topics in programming with NSS.
Tools, testing, and other technical details
- Building NSS
Describe how to check out and build NSS releases.
- mozilla_projects_nss_nss_developer_tutorial
How to make changes in NSS. Coding style, maintaining ABI compatibility.
- mozilla_projects_nss_tools
Tools for developing, debugging, and managing applications that use NSS.
- mozilla_projects_nss_nss_sample_code
Demonstrates how NSS can be used for cryptographic operations, certificate handling, SSL, etc.
- mozilla_projects_nss_nss_third-party_code
A list of third-party code included in the NSS library.
- NSS 3.2 Test Suite
Archived version. Describes how to run the standard NSS tests.
- NSS Performance Reports
Archived version. Links to performance reports for NSS 3.2 and later releases.
- Encryption Technologies Available in NSS 3.11
Archived version. Lists the cryptographic algorithms used by NSS 3.11.
- NSS 3.1 Loadable Root Certificates
Archived version. Describes the scheme for loading root CA certificates.
- cert7.db
Archived version. General format of the cert7.db database.
PKCS #11 information
mozilla_projects_nss_pkcs11
mozilla_projects_nss_pkcs11_implement
mozilla_projects_nss_pkcs11_module_specs
mozilla_projects_nss_pkcs11_faq
Using the JAR Installation Manager to Install a PKCS #11 Cryptographic Module
CA certificates pre-loaded into NSS
List of pre-loaded CA certificates
Consumers of this list must consider the trust bit setting for each included root certificate. More Information, Extracting roots and their trust bits
NSS is built on top of Netscape Portable Runtime (NSPR)
- Netscape Portable Runtime
NSPR project page.
- NSPR Reference
NSPR API documentation.
Additional Information
mozilla_projects_nss_http_delegation
mozilla_projects_nss_tls_cipher_suite_discovery
mozilla_projects_nss_certificate_download_specification
mozilla_projects_nss_fips_mode_-_an_explanation
mozilla_projects_nss_key_log_format
Planning
Information on NSS planning can be found at wiki.mozilla.org, including: