NSS 3.12.6 release notes

2010-03-03 Newsgroup: mozilla.dev.tech.crypto

Introduction

Network Security Services (NSS) 3.12.6 is a patch release for NSS 3.12. The bug fixes in NSS 3.12.6 are described in the "Bugs Fixed" section below.

NSS 3.12.6 is tri-licensed under the MPL 1.1/GPL 2.0/LGPL 2.1.

Distribution Information

The CVS tag for the NSS 3.12.6 release is NSS_3_12_6_RTM.  NSS 3.12.6 requires NSPR 4.8.4.

See the Documentation section for the build instructions.

NSS 3.12.6 source and binary distributions are also available on ftp.mozilla.org for secure HTTPS download:

You also need to download the NSPR 4.8.4 binary distributions to get the NSPR 4.8.4 header files and shared libraries, which NSS 3.12.6 requires. NSPR 4.8.4 binary distributions are in https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/nspr/releases/v4.8.4/.

New in NSS 3.12.6

SSL3 & TLS Renegotiation Indication Extension (RFC 5746)

  • By default, NSS 3.12.6 uses the new TLS Renegotiation Indication Extension for TLS renegotiation but allows simple SSL/TLS connections (without renegotiation) with peers that don't support the TLS Renegotiation Indication Extension.

    The behavior of NSS for renegotiation can be changed through API function calls, or with the following environment variables:

    • NSS_SSL_ENABLE_RENEGOTIATION
      • values:
        • [0|n|N]: SSL_RENEGOTIATE_NEVER
          • Never allow renegotiation - That was the default for 3.12.5 release.
        • [1|u|U]: SSL_RENEGOTIATE_UNRESTRICTED
          • Server and client are allowed to renegotiate without any restrictions. This setting was the default prior 3.12.5 and makes products vulnerable.
        • [2|r|R]: SSL_RENEGOTIATE_REQUIRES_XTN (default)
          • Only allows renegotiation if the peer's hello bears the TLS renegotiation_info extension. This is the safe renegotiation.
        • [3|t|T]: SSL_RENEGOTIATE_TRANSITIONAL
          • Disallows unsafe renegotiation in server sockets only, but allows clients to continue to renegotiate with vulnerable servers. This value should only be used during the transition period when few servers have been upgraded.
    • NSS_SSL_REQUIRE_SAFE_NEGOTIATION
      • values:
        • 1: requireSafeNegotiation = TRUE
        • unset: requireSafeNegotiation = FALSE
        Controls whether safe renegotiation indication is required for initial handshake. If TRUE, a connection will be dropped at initial handshake if the peer server or client does not support safe renegotiation. The default setting for this option is FALSE.

    These options can also be set with the following SSL options:

    • sslOptions.enableRenegotiation
    • sslOptions.requireSafeNegotiation
    • New pseudo cipher suite value: TLS_EMPTY_RENEGOTIATION_INFO_SCSV (cannot be negotiated)

TLS Server Name Indication for servers

  • TLS Server Name Indication (SNI) for servers is almost fully implemented in NSS 3.12.6.
    See bug 360421 for details.

    Note: The TLS Server Name Indication for clients is already fully implemented in NSS.

    • New functions for SNI (see ssl.h for more information):
      • SSLSNISocketConfig
        • Return values:
          • SSL_SNI_CURRENT_CONFIG_IS_USED: libSSL must use the default cert and key.
          • SSL_SNI_SEND_ALERT: libSSL must send the "unrecognized_name" alert.
      • SSL_SNISocketConfigHook
      • SSL_ReconfigFD
      • SSL_ConfigServerSessionIDCacheWithOpt
      • SSL_SetTrustAnchors
      • SSL_GetNegotiatedHostInfo
    • New enum for SNI:
      • SSLSniNameType (see sslt.h)

New functions

  • in cert.h
    • CERTDistNames: Duplicate distinguished name array.
    • CERT_DistNamesFromCertList: Generate an array of Distinguished names from a list of certs.
    in ocsp.h
    • CERT_CacheOCSPResponseFromSideChannel:
      • This function is intended for use when OCSP responses are provided via a side-channel, i.e. TLS OCSP stapling (a.k.a. the status_request extension).
    in ssl.h
    • SSL_GetImplementedCiphers
    • SSL_GetNumImplementedCiphers
    • SSL_HandshakeNegotiatedExtension

New error codes

  • in sslerr.h
    • SSL_ERROR_UNSAFE_NEGOTIATION
    • SSL_ERROR_RX_UNEXPECTED_UNCOMPRESSED_RECORD

New types

  • in sslt.h
    • SSLExtensionType

New environment variables

  • SQLITE_FORCE_PROXY_LOCKING
    • 1 means force always use proxy, 0 means never use proxy, NULL means use proxy for non-local files only.
  • SSLKEYLOGFILE
    • Key log file. If set, NSS logs RSA pre-master secrets to this file. This allows packet sniffers to decrypt TLS connections.
      See documentation.
      Note: The code must be built with TRACE defined to use this functionality.

Bugs Fixed

The following bugs have been fixed in NSS 3.12.6.

Documentation

For a list of the primary NSS documentation pages on mozilla.org, see NSS Documentation. New and revised documents available since the release of NSS 3.11 include the following:

Compatibility

NSS 3.12.6 shared libraries are backward compatible with all older NSS 3.x shared libraries. A program linked with older NSS 3.x shared libraries will work with NSS 3.12.6 shared libraries without recompiling or relinking.  Furthermore, applications that restrict their use of NSS APIs to the functions listed in NSS Public Functions will remain compatible with future versions of the NSS shared libraries.

Feedback

Bugs discovered should be reported by filing a bug report with mozilla.org Bugzilla (product NSS).