Configure the client for response digital signature verification... Verifying the message parts

Prior to completing these steps, read either of the following topics to becomes familiar with the Security Extensions tab and the Port Binding tab in the Web Services Client Editor within the Assembly Toolkit...

• Configuring the client security bindings using the WAS Toolkit

• Configuring the security bindings on a server acting as a client using the administrative console

Use these two tabs to configure the Web services security extensions and the Web services security bindings, respectively. Complete the following steps to configure the client for response digital signature verification. The steps describe how to modify the extensions to indicate which parts of the response to verify.

1. Launch the Assembly Toolkit and click Windows > Open Perspective > J2EE.

2. Select the Web services-enabled Enterprise JavaBean (EJB) or Web module.

3. In the Package Explorer window, locate the META-INF directory for an EJB module or the WEB-INF directory for a Web module.

4. Right-click the webservicesclient.xml file and click Open With > Web Services Client Editor.

5. Click the Security Extensions tab.

6. Expand the Response Receiver Configuration > Required Integrity section. Required integrity refers to parts that require digital signature verification. Digital signature verification decreases the risk that the message parts have been modified while the message is transmitted across the Internet.

7. Indicate the parts of the message that must be verified. You can determine which parts of the message to verify by looking at the Web service response sender configuration. Click Add and select one of the following parts:

   Body	The body is the user data portion of the message.
   Timestamp	The time stamp determines if the message is valid based on the time that the message is sent and then received. If the time stamp option is selected, proceed to the next step to add a received time stamp to the message.
   Securitytoken	The security token authenticates the client. If Securitytoken option is selected, the message is signed.

8. (Optional)   Expand the Add Received Time Stamp section. Select Add Received Time Stamp to add the received time stamp to the message.

If you configure the client and server signing information correctly, but receive a Soap body not signed error when executing the client, you might need to configure the actor. You can configure the actor in the following locations on the client in the Web Services Client Editor within the WAS Toolkit:

• Click Security Extensions > Client Service Configuration Details and indicate the actor information in the Actor URI field.

• Click Security Extensions > Request Sender Configuration > Details and indicate the actor information in the Actor field.

You must configure the same actor strings for the Web service on the server, which processes the request and sends the response back. Configure the actor in the following locations in the Web Services Editor within the WAS Toolkit...

• Click Security Extensions > Server Service Configuration.

• Click Security Extensions > Response Sender Service Configuration Details > Details and indicate the actor information in the Actor field.

The actor information on both the client and server must refer to the same exact string. When the actor fields on the client and server match, the request or response is acted upon instead of being forwarded downstream. The actor fields might be different when you have Web services acting as a gateway to other Web services. However, in all other cases, make sure that the actor information matches on the client and server. When Web services are acting as a gateway and they do not have the same actor configured as the request passing through the gateway, Web services do not process the message from a client. Instead, these Web services send the request downstream. The downstream process that contains the correct actor string processes the request. The same situation occurs for the response. Therefore, it is important that you verify that the appropriate client and server actor fields are synchronized.

You have specified which message parts are digitally signed and must be verified by the client when the server sends a response message to the client.

After you specify which message parts contain a digital signature that must be verified by the client, configure the client to recognize the digital signature method used to digitally sign the message. See Configuring the client for response digital signature verification: Choosing the verification method for more information.

 

See Also

XML digital signature
Response sender
Response receiver
Securing Web services using XML digital signature
Configuring the client security bindings using the Assembly Toolkit
Configuring the security bindings on a server acting as a client using the administrative console
Configuring the client for response digital signature verification: choosing the verification method

 

---