Using JSS

Using JSS

Newsgroup: mozilla.dev.tech.crypto

If you have already built JSS, or if you are planning to use a binary release of JSS, here's how to get JSS working with your code.

Gather Components
Setup your runtime environment
Initialize JSS in your application

Gather components

1. You need the JSS classes and the NSPR, NSS, and JSS shared libraries.
2. NSPR and NSS Shared Libraries

   JSS uses the NSPR and NSS libraries for I/O and crypto. JSS version 3.0 linked statically with NSS, so it only required NSPR. JSS versions 3.1 and later link dynamically with NSS, so they also require the NSS shared libraries.

   The exact library names vary according to the convention for each platform. For example, the NSPR library is called nspr4.dll or libnspr4.dll on Windows and libnspr4.so on Solaris. The following table gives the core names of the libraries, omitting the platform-specific prefix and suffix.

   JSS Dependencies
   Core Library Name	Description	Binary Release Location
   nspr4	NSPR OS abstraction layer	http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/nspr/releases
   plc4	NSPR standard C library replacement functions
   plds4	NSPR data structure types
   nss3	NSS crypto, PKCS #11, and utilities	http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/security/nss/releases
   ssl3	NSS SSL library
   smime3	NSS S/MIME functions and types
   nssckbi	PKCS #11 module containing built-in root CA certificates. Optional.
   freebl_*	Processor-specific optimized big-number arithmetic library. Not present on all platforms. More information...
   fort	FORTEZZA support. Optional
   swft	PKCS #11 module implementing FORTEZZA in software. Optional.

   If you built JSS from source, you have these libraries in the mozilla/dist/<platform>/lib directory of your build tree. If you are downloading binaries, get them from the binary release locations in the above table. You need to select the right version of the components, based on the version of JSS you are using. Generally, it is safe to use a later version of a component than what JSS was tested with. For example, although JSS 4.2 was tested with NSS 3.11.

   Component Versions
   JSS Version	Component	Tested Version
   JSS 4.2	NSPR	4.6.4
   	NSS	3.11.4
   JSS 3.4	NSPR	4.2.2
   	NSS	3.7.3
   JSS 3.3	NSPR	4.2.2
   	NSS	3.6.1 or 3.7
   JSS 3.2	NSPR	4.2 or 4.1.2
   	NSS	3.4.2
   JSS 3.1.1	NSPR	4.1.2
   	NSS	3.3.1
   JSS 3.1	NSPR	4.1.2
   	NSS	3.3
   JSS 3.0	NSPR	3.5.1

3. JSS Shared Library

   The JSS shared library is jss4.dll (Windows) or libjss4.so (Unix). If you built JSS from source, it is in mozilla/dist/<platform>/lib. If you are downloading binaries, get it from http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/security/jss/releases/.

4. JSS classes

   If you built JSS from source, the compiled JSS classes are in mozilla/dist/classes[_dbg]. You can put this directory in your classpath to run applications locally; or, you can package the class files into a JAR file for easier distribution:

   cd mozilla/dist/classes[_dbg]
   zip -r ../jss42.jar .
   

   If you are downloading binaries, get jss42.jar from http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/security/jss/releases/.

Setup your runtime environment

You need to set some environment variables before building and running Java applications with JSS.

• CLASSPATH

  Include the path containing the JSS classes you built, or the path to jss42.jar. (The path to jss34.jar ends with the string "/jss42.jar". It is not just the directory that contains jss42.jar.)

  LD_LIBRARY_PATH (Unix) / PATH (Windows)

  Include the path to the NSPR, NSS, and JSS shared libraries.

Initialize JSS in your application

Before calling any JSS methods, you must initialize JSS by calling one of the CryptoManager.initialize methods. See the javadoc for more details.