Securing Web services applications at the transport level

Securing Web services applications at the transport level

Transport-level security is a well-known and often used mechanism to secure HTTP Internet and intranet communications. Transport level security can be used to secure Web services messages. Transport-level security functionality is independent from functionality that is provided by message-level security (WS-Security) or HTTP basic authentication. You can use either message-level security (WS-Security) or transport-level security:

Use message-level security when security is essential to the Web service application. HTTP basic authentication uses a user name and password to authenticate a service client to a secure endpoint. The basic authentication is encoded in the HTTP request that carries the SOAP message. When the appserver receives the HTTP request, the user name and password are retrieved and verified using the authentication mechanism specific to the server.

Use transport-level security to enable basic authentication. Transport-level security can be enabled or disabled independently from message-level security. Transport-level security provides minimal security. You can use this configuration when a Web service is a client to another Web service.

Overview
Transport-level security is based on SSL or Transport Layer Security (TLS) that runs beneath HTTP. HTTP, the most used Internet communication protocol, is currently also the most popular protocol for Web services. HTTP is an inherently insecure protocol because all information is sent in clear text between unauthenticated peers over an insecure network. To secure HTTP, transport-level security can be applied.
Transport level security can be used to secure Web services messages. However, transport-level security functionality is independent from functionality that is provided by WS-Security or HTTP Basic Authentication.
SSL and TLS provide security features including authentication, data protection, and cryptographic token support for secure HTTP connections. To run with HTTPS, the service port address must be in the form https://. The integrity and confidentiality of transport data, including SOAP messages and HTTP basic authentication, is confirmed when you use SSL and TLS.
Web services applications can also use Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) approved ciphers for more secure TLS connections.
WAS uses the Java Secure Sockets Extension (JSSE) package to support SSL and TLS.
This task is one of several ways that you can configure the HTTP outbound transport level security for a Web service acting as a client to another Web service server. You can also configure the HTTP outbound transport level security with an assembly tool or by using the Java properties. If you do not configure the HTTP outbound transport level security, the Web services runtime defers to the J2EE security runtime in the WebSphere product for an effective SSL configuration. If there is no SSL configuration with the J2EE security runtime in the WebSphere product, the Java Secure Socket Extension (JSSE) system properties are used.
You can define additional HTTP transport properties for Web services applications. Use the additional properties to manage the connection pool for HTTP outbound connections, configure the content encoding of the HTTP message, enable HTTP persistent connection, and resend the HTTP request when a timeout occurs.

Procedure

Select one of the following methods to configure HTTP outbound transport level security. There are three ways that you can configure HTTP outbound transport level security:

Configure HTTP outbound transport level security by using the administrative console.

Configure HTTP outbound transport level security by using an assembly tool.

Configure HTTP outbound transport-level security by using Java properties.

Select one of the following methods to define additional HTTP transport properties for Web services applications.

Configure additional HTTP transport properties by using the JVM custom property panel in the console.

Configure additional HTTP transport properties by using an assembly tool.

Results
By completing these steps, you have secured Web services applications at the transport level.

What to do next

HTTP transport custom properties for Web services applications

Configure HTTP outbound transport level security with the administrative console

Configure HTTP outbound transport-level security using Java properties

Configure additional HTTP transport properties using the JVM custom property panel in the console

Configure additional HTTP transport properties with an assembly tool

Configure HTTP outbound transport level security with an assembly tool

Related tasks

Securing Web services for V5.x applications based on WS-Security
Securing Web services applications using JAX-RPC at the message level
Authenticating Web services clients using HTTP basic authentication
Task overview: Implementing Web services applications

Related Reference

HTTP SSL Configuration collection
Secure administration, applications, and infrastructure settings