Does Fennec use NSS?
rand...@verisign.com
https://developer.mozilla.org/En/List_of_Mozilla-Based_Applications.
If it does, does it also use the same root store as Firefox and other
NSS users?
-Rick
Nelson Bolyard
> Does Fennec use NSS? It doesn't explicitly say so at
> https://developer.mozilla.org/En/List_of_Mozilla-Based_Applications.
I don't know. We and certain members of the fennec team certainly did a lot
of work in 2008 and 2009 on NSS to solve problems for fennec, but
then all input from the fennec team suddenly stopped. I don't know if
that's because they were satisfied or because they stopped using NSS.
> If it does, does it also use the same root store as Firefox and other
> NSS users?
If it does, then yes, it uses the same root store. I'm pretty sure.
It is _conceivable_ that they could also (or instead) use a PKCS#11 module
that gives NSS access to Windows' root store, but I would be VERY surprised
to learn that the fennec team had done that. They were doing what it took
to get it to just build and run on WinCE. They weren't trying to embellish
it for that platform, AFAIK.
Kai Engert
> Does Fennec use NSS? It doesn't explicitly say so at
> https://developer.mozilla.org/En/List_of_Mozilla-Based_Applications.
On Linux Maemo, Nokia N810, "dpkg --listfiles fennec |grep -i nss",
lists the usual NSS shared libraries, I conclude the answer is "yes".
Also, the user's profile directory /home/user/.mozilla/fennec/*.default/
contains the usual NSS storage files key*.db and cert*.db
> If it does, does it also use the same root store as Firefox and other
> NSS users?
I'd be very surprised if it used anything else. Unfortunately I couldn't
see a cert manager or viewer in the Fennec browser.
As a test, I used a very recent build of Fennec, and visited
https://www.hongkongpost.gov.hk/
The CA necessary to verify this site has just recently been added to
NSS, see https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=541499
When visiting the test site using the N810's default browser MicroB
(also based on Firefox and NSS, but using older versions), I get a
security warning.
I conclude Fennec doesn't use the N810's system root list, but its own
root list shipped with Fennec.
Kai
Kai Engert
> On 10.04.2010 02:11, rand...@verisign.com wrote:
>> Does Fennec use NSS? It doesn't explicitly say so at
>> https://developer.mozilla.org/En/List_of_Mozilla-Based_Applications.
>
> On Linux Maemo, Nokia N810, "dpkg --listfiles fennec |grep -i nss",
> lists the usual NSS shared libraries, I conclude the answer is "yes".
>
> Also, the user's profile directory /home/user/.mozilla/fennec/*.default/
> contains the usual NSS storage files key*.db and cert*.db
>
>
>> If it does, does it also use the same root store as Firefox and other
>> NSS users?
>
> I'd be very surprised if it used anything else. Unfortunately I couldn't
> see a cert manager or viewer in the Fennec browser.
>
> As a test, I used a very recent build of Fennec, and visited
> https://www.hongkongpost.gov.hk/
to clarify: ... and it worked just fine (server cert successfully
verified) - as opposed to https://www.cacert.org which gave me a
security warning (as expected).
Kai
Justin Dolske
> Does Fennec use NSS? It doesn't explicitly say so at
> https://developer.mozilla.org/En/List_of_Mozilla-Based_Applications.
Yes, Fennec uses NSS. It's basically built on the same core pieces as
Firefox (ie, NSPR, NSS, Gecko, Cairo, etc), just with a completely new
front-end and user interface.
The page you linked to is just a high-level summary of applications
using Mozilla technologies.
> If it does, does it also use the same root store as Firefox and other
> NSS users?
Yes, it uses the same roots as Firefox. Fennec 1.0.x is build from the
mozilla-1.9.2 tree, just like Firefox 3.6.x.
Justin