Since its inception, Firefox has used technology known as Network Security Services (NSS) to help validate the integrity of security certificates used for an SSL session. Mozilla is now trying out a new security library called mozilla::pkix to enhance and improve certificate validation checking.
“It’s a new validation library that replaces some of the functionality in NSS, but we will still need most of NSS in concert with mozilla::pkix,”Sid Stamm, senior engineering manager for security and privacy at Mozilla, explained to eWEEK.