This version contains many new and changed features for those who are responsible for securing applications and the application serving environment.
The biggest improvement in security involves the set of supported
specifications.
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![]() The product has been enhanced to provide Common Criteria Assurance Level 4 security functionality, with full certification to follow before year end 2005. Common Criteria is a scheme for independent assessment, analysis, and testing of IT products to a set of security requirements. Certification gives customers the confidence that products will be ef- fective in delivering security functions such as identification & authentication, user data protection, audit, and cryptographic support. Customers gain assurance that the security functions are correctly im- plemented and will be effective in satisfying their security objectives. For more information, see Common Criteria (EAL4) support and limitations. |
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![]() The product has been enhanced to support an implementation of the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2 government standard. The IBM Java Secure Sockets Extension (JSSE) FIPS 140-2 Cryptographic Module for multi-platforms is a scalable, multipurpose Secure Sockets provider that supports cipher suites via the Java 2 Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for enhanced protection of sensitive data. It enables the product and other IBM products to run in "FIPS" mode and help fulfill end-to-end requirements for use of FIPS-certified cryptographic module. For more information, see Federal Information Processing Standard support. |
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![]() In addition to support for multiple LDAP directory services binding and failover, now you can dynamically update LDAP binding information without first stopping and restarting application servers. For more information, see http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=180&uid=swg21210243. |
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![]() A plug point for custom password encryption must be created to encrypt and decrypt all passwords in WebSphere® Application Server that are currently encoded or decoded using Base64-encoding. The implementation class of this plug point has the responsibility for managing keys, determining the encryption algorithm to use, and for protecting the master secret. For more information, see the Technote http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=180&uid=swg21210244. |
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![]() If you want an application or system provider to perform an identity assertion with trust validation, it can be accomplished by use of the Java Authentication and Authorization Service (JAAS) login framework, where trust validation is performed in one login module and credential creation in another. These two custom login modules are used to create a JAAS login configuration that performs a login to an identity assertion. For more information, see Identity assertions with trust validation. |
Java 2 security manager | WebSphere Application Server Version 6.0.x provides you with greater control over the permissions granted to applications for manipulating non-system threads. You can permit applications to manipulate non-system threads using the was.policy file. However, these thread control permissions are disabled, by default. For more information, see Configuring the was.policy file. |
JCA 1.5 support | WebSphere Application Server Version 6.0.x supports the J2EE Connector Architecture (JCA) Version 1.5 specification, which provides new features such as the inbound resource adapter. For more information, see J2EE Connector Architecture resource adapters. From a security perspective, WebSphere Application Server Version 6.0.x provides an enhanced custom principal and credential mapping programming interface and custom mapping properties at the resource reference level. The custom JAAS login module, which was developed for JCA principal and credential mapping for WebSphere Application Server Version 5.x, is still supported. |
SSL channel framework | The Secure Sockets Layer channel framework incorporates the new IBMJSSE2 implementation and separates the security function of Java Secure Sockets Extension (JSSE) from the network communication function. |
Web authentication using the Java Authentication and Authorization Service programming model | WebSphere Application Server Version 6.0.x enables you to use the Java Authentication and Authorization Service (JAAS) programming model to perform Web authentication in your application code. To use this function, you must create your own JAAS login configuration by cloning the WEB_INBOUND login configuration and define a cookie=true login option. After a successful login using your login configuration, the Web login session is tracked by single signon (SSO) token cookies. This option replaces the SSOAuthenticator interface, which was deprecated in WebSphere Application Server Version 4. For more information, see Java Authentication and Authorization Service authorization. |
Web services security | WebSphere Application Server Version 6.0.x increases the extensibility of Web services security by providing a pluggable architecture. The implementation in WebSphere Application Server includes many of the features that are described in the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) Web Services Security Version 1 standard. As part of this standard, WebSphere Application Server supports custom, pluggable tokens that are used for signing and encryption, pluggable signing and encryption algorithms, pluggable key locators for locating a key that is used for digital signature or encryption, signing or encrypting elements in a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) message, and specifying the order of the signing or encryption processes. |
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Overview and new features for securing applications and their environment