NSS 3.2.1 provides improved SSL performance and fixes bugs in pk12util and some certificate query operations. It also facilitates simplified build instructions; for details, see Build Instructions for NSS 3.2.1 Release.
This document describes the NSS 3.2.1 release only. For detailed information about NSS 3.2, including changes since NSS 3.1.1, see NSS 3.2 Release Notes.
Network Security Services (NSS) is a set of libraries designed to support cross-platform development of security-enabled client and server applications. These libraries provide the security foundation for a variety of server products from iPlanet E-Commerce Solutions, including iPlanet Certificate Management System, iPlanet Web Server, iPlanet Directory Server, and iPlanet Messaging Server.
The NSS libraries also underlie Personal Security Manager (PSM), which performs cryptographic operations on behalf of Netscape Communicator, Netscape 6, and other client applications.
In early 2000, we contributed NSS to the open source community. All the code that we could publish was released as NSS 3.0 on mozilla.org. In October of 2000, we released NSS 3.1, a complete version of NSS that included support for the RSA algorithm. A major drawback of NSS 3.1 was that it did not perform as well as NSS 2.83 on some hardware platforms. In December of 2000, we released NSS 3.1.1, which fixed several bugs in NSS 3.1, including a bug related to prime number generation.
In March of 2001 we released NSS 3.2, which provided improved SSL performance, support for shared libraries, and improved tools support.
NSS 3.2.1 is dual-licensed under the MPL and the GPL.
NSS 3.2.1 source and binary distributions will be available soon.
For a list of all bugs that have been fixed in the NSS 3.2.1 release, click here.
Source may be viewed with a browser (via the LXR tool) at http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla/source/security/nss/
The following tools are supported in this release:
For documentation and other information about these tools, see NSS Tools.
NSS 3.2.1 provides improved SSL performance compared with NSS 3.2 and fixes bugs in pk12util and some certificate query operations. It also facilitates simplified build instructions; for details, see Build Instructions for NSS 3.2.1 Release.
For changes introduced in NSS 3.2, see NSS 3.2 Release Notes.
| Platform | Build | Certify | Compiler(s) |
| AIX | 4.3.3 (32 bit) | 4.3.3 (32 bit) 4.3.3 (64 bit) |
xlC/C++ 3.6.4 |
| 4.3.3 (64 bit) | 4.3.3 (64 bit) | xlC/C++ 3.6.4 | |
| Compaq Tru64 | 4.0D | 4.0D
5.0A |
(cc) Digital C v5.6-071 |
| HP-UX | 11.0 (32 bit) | 11.0 (32 bit) 11.0 (64 bit) |
C compiler: A.11.01.00 |
| 11.0 (64 bit) | 11.0 (64 bit) | C compiler A.11.01.00 | |
| Linux | RedHat 6.0 | RedHat 6.0 RedHat 6.1 |
egcs-1.1.2 |
| NT | NT 4.0 w/ SP 6a | NT 4.0 w/ SP 6a
Win2000 |
VC++ 6.0 Service Pack 3 |
| Windows | NT 4.0 w/ SP 6a |
NT 4.0 w/ SP 6a Win2000 |
VC++ 6.0 Service Pack 3 |
| Solaris | 2.6 | 2.6 8 (32 bit) 8 (64 bit) |
WorkShop Compilers
C/C++ version 4.2 |
| 8 (64-bit) | 8 (64-bit) | WorkShop Compilers
C/C++ version 5.0 |
NSS has not yet been formally tested or certified on any other platforms. If you have successfully run NSS on other platforms, or if you are interested in taking responsibility for testing and maintaining NSS on a particular platform that's not listed above, post a message to mozilla.dev.tech.crypto.
Note re NT builds: The build listed in the left column above as the "NT" build runs on NT (including Windows 2000) only and hence can potentially take advantage of some Win32 functions that are only implemented on NT, such as fibers and I/O completion ports. The build listed above as the "Windows" build runs on all Windows flavors -- 95, 98, Me, NT, and 2000.
Only NSPR makes use of this NT vs. Windows distinction and provides different NT and Windows builds. Many Netscape products, including NSS, have NT and Windows builds that are essentially the same except one difference: one is linked with the NT version of NSPR and the other is linked with the Windows version of NSPR.
Note to Macintosh Developers: Due to a lack of resources, our team was unable to develop NSS for the Macintosh platform. We are looking for help from any interested parties to modify the Macintosh project file for NSS 3.2. For contact information, please see the Feedback section.
You can also give feedback directly to the developers on the IRC channel #mozcrypto on the server irc.mozilla.org.