NSS:Roadmap: Difference between revisions

Welcome to the [http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/pki/nss/ NSS] roadmap. NSS is a collection of cryptographic libraries used for performing functions like setting up SSL connections or encrypting messages using the S/MIME standard. In 2005-2006, we plan to make at lease three NSS releases: NSS 3.11, NSS 3.11.1, and NSS 3.12. This roadmap outlines the features and schedule estimates for these upcoming NSS releases. These releases will address the needs of the Mozilla clients, as well as the needs of Red Hat and Sun Microsystems server products and related technologies. Other consumers of NSS will also benefit from the performance and standards compliance features.

== NSS 3.11 Major Features ==

=== SSL Performance Enhancements ===

We will work to further improve NSS's software SSL performance. The multiprecision arithmetic ("big num") library and some algorithms (such as SHA-1) will be heavily optimized. For additional performance boost, the SSL library can be configured to call the low-level crypto library (libfreebl3.so) directly, bypassing the PKCS #11 layer. (Note: applications using NSS wanting to run in FIPS 140-2 mode will need to leave the bypass turned <i>off</i> (which is the default) to remain compliant. For other restrictions applications need to observe when using NSS to remain compliant, please see the [[FIPS Application Requirements]] page ***CREATE PAGE!!**

== NSS 3.11 Minor Features ==

=== Enable NSS to Use Tokens That Support ANSI X9.31 RSA Key Pair Generation ===

[http://www.rsasecurity.com/rsalabs/node.asp?id=2306 ANSI X9.31] specifies a method to generate RSA public/private key pairs whose p and q values meet strong primes requirements. Some hardware security modules support X9.31 RSA key pair generation.

We would like to enable one to pass the CKM_RSA_X9_31_KEY_PAIR_GEN mechanism to PK11_GenerateKeyPair. See [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=302219 Bugzilla bug 302219].

=== Countermeasures for Cache Timing Attacks ===

We have re-implemented the multiplication and exponentiation routines in our multiprecision arithmetic ("big num") library to defend against cache timing attacks.

=== NSS RPM ===

The current [http://www.mozilla.org/projects/nspr/ NSPR] and NSS RPMs in Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora Core are created as byproducts of the Mozilla client RPM. They are called mozilla-nspr and mozilla-nss, and they use Mozilla's version numbers (such as 1.7.10).

We want to create the official NSPR and NSS RPMs, independent of the Mozilla RPM and with the right version numbers, that all NSPR and NSS based applications can use.

We also need to decide which NSS tools to ship. The candidate list is certutil, modutil, pk12util, signtool, and ssltap.

= NSS 3.11.1 =

== NSS 3.11.1 Features ==

We will add OCSP HTTP client callback support ([https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=152426 Bugzilla bug 152426]) so that Firefox 2.0 can do OCSP through a proxy server ([https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=111384 Bugzilla bug 111384]).

The NSS codebase currently contains [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptic_curve_cryptography Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC)] algorithms donated by Sun Labs; however, they are turned off by default in the builds script. In this release we will implement the ECC TLS cipher suites specified in RFC 4492 ([https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=236245 Bugzilla bug 236245]).

This work was originally scheduled for NSS 3.12. We have decided to do it earlier in NSS 3.11.1.

We are considering accelerating the implementation of the TLS Server Name Indication (SNI) extension (see RFC 3546) in light of a recent IEBlog [http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/10/22/483795.aspx Upcoming HTTPS Improvements in Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2].

This work was originally scheduled for NSS 3.12. We have decided to do it earlier in NSS 3.11.1.

= NSS 3.11.2 =

* FIPS 140-2 features: logging auditable events, new cryptographic algorithm tests,

* fixes for the regressions introduced in NSS 3.11 or 3.11.1,

= NSS 3.11.5 (FIPS) =

The version number 3.11.5 has been reserved for the NSS 3.11.x release that

will pass FIPS 140-2 validation.

= NSS 3.12 =  

We are implementing libpkix, a new certificate path validation library that supports the certificate and CRL profile specified in RFC 3280.

libpkix will add to NSS several features that are long overdue, such as certificate policy, cross-certification (Federal Bridge CA), and delta CRLs.

New variants of CERT_VerifyCert will be added that use libpkix for certificate path validation.

Many client applications, such as Firefox, Thunderbird, Evolution, and OpenOffice.org, use NSS, but they each have their own certificate and key databases. As a result, for example, if you import and trust a certificate in Firefox, you will not see it in Thunderbird. This is because Berkeley DB 1.85, the database NSS currently uses, can't be used by multiple processes.

Although new versions of Berkeley DB (from Sleepycat Software) support multiprocess access, its open source license is incompatible with the Mozilla Public License (MPL).  

We are planning to implement a multiaccess database using [http://www.sqlite.org/ SQLite], which is in the "public domain". Other Mozilla teams are adopting SQLite, making it a logical choice for the NSS project as well.

Since libpkix is significant amount of work, it is likely that the multiaccess database feature will be postponed to NSS 3.13.

<b>Note:</b> This change will affect code inside the FIPS 140-2 defined cryptographic module boundaries. Therefore, we will need to document these changes and obtain a delta validation.

= Future Work: NSS 3.13 and Beyond =

 

NSS needs to support external biometrics to unlock tokens. Today there are limitation in the PKCS#11 specifications which make it hard to replace the traditional smartcard PIN UI prompt with an external biometric operation. For example, we would like to unlock smartcards using a fingerprint reader or retina scanner.

* RTM: 2006 Q4