Security token

A security token represents a set of claims made by a client that might include a name, password, identity, key, certificate, group, privilege, and so on.

Web services security provides a general-purpose mechanism to associate
security tokens with messages for single message authentication. A specific type of security token is not required by Web services security. Web services
security is designed to be extensible and support multiple security token formats to accommodate a variety of authentication mechanisms. For example, a client might provide proof of identity and proof of a particular business certification.

A security token is embedded in the SOAP message within the SOAP header. The security token within the SOAP header is propagated from the message sender to the intended message receiver. On the receiving side, the WebSphere Application Server security handler authenticates the security token and sets up the caller identity on the running thread.

Remember: The information in this article supports version 5.x applications only that are used with WebSphere Application Server Version 6. The information does not apply to version 6 applications.

Related concepts
Username token element
Binary security token
XML token
Web services