Keys

Use keys for XML digital signature and encryption.

There are two predominant kinds of keys used in the current Web services security implementation:

• Public key - such as Rivest Shamir Adleman (RSA) encryption and Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA) encryption
• Secret key - such as triple-strength DES (3DES) encryption

In public key-based signature, a message is signed using the sender private key and is verified using the sender public key. In public key-based encryption, a message is encrypted using the receiver public key and is decrypted using the receiver private key. In secret key-based signature and encryption, the same key is used by both parties.

While the current implementation of WS-Security can support both kinds of keys, the format of the message differs slightly between public key-based encryption and secret key-based encryption.

---

 

Related concepts

Overview of platform configuration and bindings