What is the JSSE API and SunJSSE provider?

The JSSE API is a set of Java library in the Java Extension packages: javax.net and javax.net.ssl packages, The JSSE API JDK 8 version provides API for:

• Secure sockets and server sockets.
• A nonblocking engine for producing and consuming streams of SSL/TLS data (SSLEngine).
• Factories for creating sockets, server sockets, SSL sockets, and SSL server sockets. By using socket factories, you can encapsulate socket creation and configuration behavior.
• A class representing a secure socket context that acts as a factory for secure socket factories and engines.
• Key and trust manager interfaces (including X.509-specific key and trust managers), and factories that can be used for creating them.
• A class for secure HTTP URL connections (HTTPS).

The JSSE API does not have implementation classes that support the functionalities defined in the API. But the SunJSSE Provider packages, com.sun.net.ssl.internal and sun.security, included in jsse.jar do provide Oracle's implementation of the following cryptographic services under the JSSE API:

• An implementation of the SSL 3.0 and TLS 1.0 security protocols.
• An implementation of the most common SSL and TLS cipher suites, which encompass a combination of authentication, key agreement, encryption, and integrity protection.
• An implementation of an X.509-based key manager that chooses appropriate authentication keys from a standard JCA keystore.
• An implementation of an X.509-based trust manager that implements rules for certificate chain path validation.
• An implementation of PKCS12 as JCA keystore type "pkcs12". Storing trust anchors in PKCS12 is not supported. Users should store trust anchors in the Java keystore (JKS) format and save private keys in PKCS12 format.

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