204881 - Embedding applications must be able to manage NSS init on their own

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Core Graveyard :: Security: UI, defect)

Description

[Kai Engert [:KaiE:]]

In some embedding scnearios, the application wants to embed Gecko including PSM,
but wants to drive the security initialization on their own.

The following is the proposed way to do it:

- the embedding application must init NSS before any code in
security/manager/ssl gets called

- the embedding application must implement a service that provides interface
nsINSSInitControlService, accessible using contract ID
"@mozilla.org/security/nss-init-control-service;1"

- nsINSSInitControlService provides the control flag "shouldGeckoInitNSS"

- Gecko/PSM will not init NSS, if such a service implementation is available and
shouldGeckoInitNSS returns FALSE.

- standard Mozilla will not implement this service

Comment 1

[Kai Engert [:KaiE:]]

I'm attaching a first patch that is suitable for an embedding application that
uses a single profile all the time, i.e. that does not require dynamic profile
switching.

Such a feature would require the embedding application to listen to
announcements from the profile manager and do NSS shutdown/re-init on demand.

However, in such a scenario, probably more changes would be required to PSM,
because of PSM's attempt to track all resources and free them at the correct
time. To support such a complex environment, additional callbacks between the
embedding application and Gecko/PSM will have to be implemented.

Comment 2

[Kai Engert [:KaiE:]]

Attachment: Patch v1

Comment 3

[Conrad Carlen (not reading bugmail)]

Will nsNSSComponent still function if it never calls its InitializeNSS() method?
Is the real problem that the embedding app wants to use NSS by itself and the
Gecko layer (nsNSSComponent) is being dragged in?

Comment 4

[Kai Engert [:KaiE:]]

> Will nsNSSComponent still function if it never calls its InitializeNSS() method?

No, it will crash if nobody inits NSS.

> Is the real problem that the embedding app wants to use NSS by itself and the
> Gecko layer (nsNSSComponent) is being dragged in?

Yes, embedding app wants to access NSS, too, thereby it gets shared between the
application and Gecko.

Comment 5

[Kai Engert [:KaiE:]]

Discussed with Conrad, a more flexible solution would allow the embedding
application to provide callbacks for NSS init and shutdown, possibly doing
nothing if the application did already init.

However, it must be carefully reviewed which portions of PSM init/shutdown code
should get executed anyway (e.g. the tracking of NSS resources for early
cleanup), in order to make profile switching will work correctly in such a
callback environment.

Comment 6

[Kai Engert [:KaiE:]]

reassign bug owner.
mass-update-kaie-20120918

Comment 7

[Dana Keeler (she/her) [:keeler]]

It's not clear to me that anyone is in need of this feature. If that's not the case, please file a new bug in Core :: Security: PSM with the details of your situation.