WAS v8.5 > Secure applications > Secure web services > Secure web services > Web Services Security concepts > Web Services Security concepts for v5.x applications > Overview of token types

Username token

The <UsernameToken> element propagates a user name and optionally propagates the password information. Use this token type to carry basic authentication information.

There is an important distinction between v5.x and v6.0.x and later applications. The information in this article supports v5.x applications only used with WebSphere Application Server v6.0.x and later. The information does not apply to v6.0.x and later applications.

Both a user name and a password are used to authenticate the message. A <UsernameToken> element containing the user name is used in identity assertion. Identity assertion establishes the identity of the user, based on the trust relationship.

The following example shows the syntax of the <UsernameToken> element:

<UsernameToken Id="..."> <Username>...</Username> <Password Type="...">...</Password> </UsernameToken>

The Web Services Security specification defines the following password types:

http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-username-token-profile-1.0#PasswordText (default)

This type is the actual password for the user name.

http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-username-token-profile-1.0#PasswordDigest

The type is the digest of the password for the user name. The value is a base64-encoded SHA1 hash value of the UTF8-encoded password.

WAS supports the default PasswordText type. However, it does not support password digest because most user registry security policies do not expose the password to the application software.

The following example illustrates the use of the <UsernameToken> element:

<S:Envelope xmlns:S="http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-envelope"
            xmlns:wsse="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2002/04/secext">     <S:Header>             ...
        <wsse:Security>             <wsse:UsernameToken>                 <wsse:Username>Joe</wsse:Username>                 <wsse:Password>ILoveJava</wsse:Password>             </wsse:UsernameToken>         </wsse:Security>     </S:Header> </S:Envelope>

Subtopics

• Nonce, a randomly generated token
  Nonce is a randomly generated, cryptographic token used to prevent the theft of user name tokens used with SOAP messages. Nonce is used with the basic authentication (BasicAuth) method.

Related concepts:

Binary security token
XML token
Security token

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