+

Search Tips   |   Advanced Search

Secure web services applications using the WSS APIs at the message level

Standards and profiles address how to provide protection for messages that are exchanged in a web service environment. Web Services Security is a message-level standard based on securing SOAP messages through XML digital signature, confidentiality through XML encryption, and credential propagation through security tokens.

To secure web services, consider a broad set of security requirements, including authentication, authorization, privacy, trust, integrity, confidentiality, secure communications channels, delegation, and auditing across a spectrum of application and business topologies. One of the key requirements for the security model in today's business environment is the ability to interoperate between formerly incompatible security technologies in heterogeneous environments. The complete Web Services Security protocol stack and technology roadmap is described in the web services roadmap.

The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) Web Services Security: SOAP Message Security Version 1.1 specification is the basic messaging transport for all web services. SOAP 1.2 adds extensions to the existing SOAP 1.1 extensions so that we can build secure web services. Attachments can be added to SOAP messages using Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism and XML-binary Optimized Packaging (XOP) instead of the SOAP with Attachments (SWA) profile.

The OASIS Web Services Security (WS-Security) Version 1.1 specification is the building block used in conjunction with other web service and application-specific protocols to accommodate a wide variety of security models. Web Services Security for WebSphere Application Server is based on specific standards included in the OASIS Web Services Security Version 1.1 specification and profiles.

The Version 1.1 specification defines additional facilities for protecting the integrity and confidentiality of a message. The Version 1.1 specification also provides the mechanisms for associating security-related claims with the message. The Web Services Security Version 1.1 standards supported by WAS include the signature confirmation, encrypted header elements, the Username Token Profile and the X.509 Token Profile. The Username Token Profile and the X.509 Token Profile have been updated as Version 1.1 profiles. For the X.509 Certificate Token Profile, one new type of security token reference is the Thumbprint reference, which is specified in the binding.

XML Schema, Part 1 and Part 2 are specifications that explain how schemas are organized in XML documents. The two WS-Security Version 1.0 schemas have been updated to the Version 1.1 specifications plus a new Version 1.1 schema has been added. Note that the Version 1.1 schema does not replace the Version 1.0 schema but instead builds upon it by defining an additional set of capabilities within a Version 1.1 namespace.

Use the following methods to configure Web Services Security and to define policy types to secure the SOAP messages:

To secure web services with WAS, configure the generator and the consumer security constraints. Specify several different configurations. Although there is no specific sequence to specify these different configurations, some configurations reference other configurations. For example, decryption configurations reference encryption configurations.


Subtopics

After completing these high-level steps for WAS, we have secured web services by configuring policy sets and using the WSS API to configure encryption and decryption, the signature and signature verification information, and the consumer and generator tokens.


Related:

  • Web Services Security API programming model
  • Configure application and system policy sets for web services
  • Configure secure transmission of SOAP messages using WS-Security
  • Getting WS-Security information from the owning parties
  • Web Services Security APIs
  • PolicySetManagement
  • Web services specifications and APIs

    Web Services Security: SOAP Message Security Version 1.1 specification

  • Security in a Web Services World: A Proposed Architecture and Roadmap