WHAT VERSION OF NSS? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NSS 3.9 or greater and NSPR 4.4.1 or greater are required. KEYS MANAGER ------------------------------------------------------------------------ xmlsec-nss key manager uses a custom Keys Store, and a custom X509 Store. The custom Keys Store and the X509 Store use the NSS database as the underlying store for public/private keys, Certs and CRLs. The NSS Keys store uses the Simple Keys Store on top of the NSS repository. The reason for this is that XMLSEC's generic adoptkey/getKey functions use a XMLSEC key object that contains more attributes than the raw NSS key object, and the getkey function may use a combination of one or more of these attributes (name, type, usage, Id) to find a key. There is no straightforward 1-1 mapping between XMLSEC's adoptkey/getkey and NSS's APIs. For example, the store may be asked to adopt a symmetric key, and later asked to find it just by name. Or the store may be asked to adopt a private key just by its type, and later asked to find it just by type. The key returned by getKey is expected to contain all the attributes that were present at the time of adoptkey - NSS store does not provide a way to store app-specific attributes. When a key is adopted by the NSS Keys Store, it is simply saved in the Simple Keys Store. It is not saved into the NSS database. The only way to load keys into the NSS database is with a load operation through the XMLSEC API or via an administrator operation. When a getKey is done on the NSS Keys Store, it first checks the Simple Keys Store. If the key is found there, it is returned. If not, the key is searched in the NSS database. If found, the key is stored in the Simple Keys Store before it is returned. Thus, the various sources for keys/certs/crls for an XMLSEC-NSS application are: - elements in XML documents - PKCS12 and DER files - NSS Database KNOWN ISSUES ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1) NSS needs to provide a way to convert a DER integer string to an ASCII decimal string. Once NSS is fixed, the function xmlSecNssASN1IntegerWrite in src/nss/x509.c needs to be implemented. NSS bug: http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=212864 xmlsec bug: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=118633 2) RSA Encryption/Decryption using PKCS#1 v1.5 padding not currently exposed in NSS. This causes some tests to fail. NSS bug: http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=214236 xmlsec bug: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=118628 3) RSA-OAEP is not yet implemented in NSS. This is the only REQUIRED algorithm that is missing from xmlsec-nss. NSS bug: http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=158747 xmlsec bug: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=118629 4) CERT_FindCertByNameString does not work in all cases NSS bug: http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=210709 xmlsec bug: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=118631 5) CERT_FindCertBySubjectKeyID does not work in all cases NSS bug: http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=211051 xmlsec bug: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=118632 6) Finding a cert by Issuer & Serial Number needs the ability to convert an ASCII decimal string to a DER integer string. Filed an RFE against NSS. Once fixed, xmlSecNumToItem in x509vfy.c needs to be changed to use the new function(s) provided NSS bug: http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=212864 xmlsec bug: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=118633 7) RIPEMD160 Digest and RIPEMD160 HMAC is not supported by NSS xmlsec bug: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=118634 8) AES Key wrap algorithm is implemented in NSS but not exposed due to some bug src/nss/kw_aes.c uses a workaround which should be removed when the bug is fixed NSS bug: http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=213795 xmlsec bug: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=118635 9) Not all file formats are supported - xmlSecNssAppKeyLoad(): This function loads a PKI key from a file. The following formats are supported: . xmlSecKeyDataFormatDer: This expects the private key to be in PrivateKeyInfo format. Note that the DER files containing private keys in the xmlsec test suite aren't in that format . xmlsecKeyDataFormatPkcs12 The following formats are not supported: . xmlSecKeyDataFormatPkcs8Pem . xmlSecKeyDataFormatPkcs8Der - xmlSecNssAppCertLoad(): This function loads a cert from a file. The following formats are supported: xmlSecKeyDataFormatDer The following formats are not supported: xmlSecKeyDataFormatPem 10) "Trusted" vs "Untrusted" certificates: The distinction between "trusted" and "untrusted" certificates in xmlsec-openssl is maintained because the OPENSSL application (and not the OPENSSL library) has to maintain a cert store and verify certificates. With NSS, no such distinction is necessary in the application. Aleksey: Not sure that I understand this point but thats what Tej wrote. 11) NSS doesn't support emailAddress in the cert subject. There is a hack that needs to be removed in xmlSecNssX509FindCert function (x509vfy.c): https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=561689 12) CRLs from xml document support is not working at all.