WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment, Version 6.0.x   Operating Systems: AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, Windows
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Securing Web services for Version 5.x applications based on WS-Security

Web services security for WebSphere Application Server is based on standards included in the Web services security (WS-Security) specification. These standards address how to provide protection for messages exchanged in a Web service environment.

Before you begin

Important: There is an important distinction between Version 5.x and Version 6 and later applications. The information in this article supports Version 5.x applications only that are used with WebSphere Application Server Version 6.0.x and later. The information does not apply to Version 6 and later applications.

The specification defines the core facilities for protecting the integrity and confidentiality of a message and provides mechanisms for associating security-related claims with the message. 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.

About this task

Use the deprecated "Securing Apache SOAP Web services" topics in the WebSphere Application Server, Version 5 documentation if you are still using Apache SOAP Version 2.3.

To secure Web services, you must consider a broad set of security requirements, including authentication, authorization, privacy, trust, integrity, confidentiality, secure communications channels, federation, 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 inter-operate between formerly incompatible security technologies, such as public key infrastructure and Kerberos in heterogeneous environments like Microsoft .NET and environments that are based on the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) standards. The complete Web services security protocol stack and technology roadmap is described in Security in a Web Services World: A Proposed Architecture and Roadmap.

Specification: Web Services Security (WS-Security) proposes a standard set of SOAP extensions that you can use to build secure Web services. These standards confirm integrity and confidentiality, which are generally provided with digital signature and encryption technologies. In addition, Web services security provides a general purpose mechanism for associating security tokens with messages. A typical example of the security token is a user name and password token, in which a user name and password are included as text. Web services security defines how to encode binary security tokens using methods such as X.509 certificates and Kerberos tickets.

To establish a secured environment and to enforce constraints for Web services security, you must perform a Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) lookup on the client to resolve the service reference.

An administrator can use any of the following methods to integrate message-level security into a WebSphere Application Server environment:

Procedure




Sub-topics
Web services security specification—a chronology
Web services security support
Web services security and Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition security relationship
Web services security model in WebSphere Application Server
Example: Propagating security tokens
Web services security constraints
Overview of authentication methods
XML digital signature
Securing Web services for Version 5.x applications using XML digital signature
XML encryption
Securing Web services for Version 5.x applications using XML encryption
Securing Web services for Version 5.x applications using basic authentication
Identity assertion in a SOAP message
Securing Web services for Version 5.x applications using identity assertion authentication
Securing Web services for version 5.x applications using signature authentication
Overview of token types
Security token
Securing Web services for version 5.x applications using a pluggable token
Tuning Web services security for Version 5.x applications
Related tasks
Task overview: Implementing Web services applications
Related reference
Web services: Default bindings for the Web services security collection
Web services: Resources for learning
Related information
Security in a Web Services World: A Proposed Architecture and Roadmap
Specification: Web Services Security (WS-Security)
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Last updated: Mar 8, 2007 8:14:28 PM CST
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