“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. NSS 3.1 provides, for the first time, a complete
open-source implementation of the crypto libraries used to
implement security features in these products, including a new
implementation of the RSA algorithm. (For more information on the
effects of the RSA algorithm going into the public domain, see the
Mozilla Crypto FAQ. For schedule and other details of the plan for
NSS 3.1, see NSS 3.1 Plan.)”
“The NSS libraries also underlie Personal Security Manager
(PSM), which performs cryptographic operations on behalf of
Netscape Communicator, Netscape 6, and other client applications.
By the time the final version of NSS 3.1 is released (currently
planned for mid-October), a version of Personal Security Manager
based on NSS 3.1 will also be released for use with Mozilla and
Netscape 6. At that point both NSS and PSM will be completely
buildable using the open source code available from the mozilla.org
site, and NSS and PSM will be included in the Mozilla binary
releases distributed by mozilla.org.”
“If you are developing applications that support SSL, S/MIME, or
other Internet security standards, you can now use NSS libraries to
implement comparable security features in your own applications.
NSS 3.1 also includes a framework to which developers and OEMs can
contribute patches, such as assembler code, to optimize performance
on their platforms.”