To configure the server for request digital signature verification, use an assembly tool to modify the extensions and indicate which digital signature method the server will use during verification.
There is an important distinction between Version 5.x and V6 and later applications. The information in this article supports V5.x applications only that are used with WebSphere Application Server V6.0.x and later. The information does not apply to Version 6.0.x and later applications. Prior to completing these steps, read either of the following topics to become familiar with the Extensions tab and the Binding Configurations tab in the Web Services Editor within the IBM assembly tools:
You can use these two tabs to configure the Web services security extensions and Web services security bindings, respectively. You must specify which message parts contain digital signature information that must be verified by the server. See Configuring the server for request digital signature verification: Verifying the message parts. The message parts specified for the client request sender must match the message parts specified for the server request receiver. Likewise, the digital signature method chosen for the client must match the digital signature method used by the server.
For more conceptual information on digitally signing SOAP messages, see XML digital signature. The following table describes the purpose for each of these selections. Some of the following definitions are based on the XML-Signature specification, which is located at the following Web address: http://www.w3.org/TR/xmldsig-core.
| Name | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Canonicalization method algorithm | Canonicalizes the <SignedInfo> element before it is digested as part of the signature operation. The algorithm selected for the server request receiver configuration must match the algorithm selected in the client request sender configuration. |
| Digest method algorithm | Applies to the data after transforms are applied, if specified, to yield the <DigestValue> element. The signing of the <DigestValue> element binds resource content to the signer key. The algorithm selected for the server request receiver configuration must match the algorithm selected in the client request sender configuration. |
| Signature method algorithm | Converts the canonicalized <SignedInfo> element into the <SignatureValue> element. The algorithm selected for the server request receiver configuration must match the algorithm selected in the client request sender configuration. |
| Use certificate path reference or Trust any certificate | Validates a certificate or signature sent with a message. When a message is signed, the public key used to sign it is sent with the message. This public key or certificate might not be validated at the receiving end. By selecting User certificate path reference, configure a trust anchor reference and a certificate store reference to validate the certificate sent with the message. By selecting Trust any certificate, the signature is validated by the certificate sent with the message without the certificate itself being validated. |
| Use certificate path reference: Trust anchor reference | Refers to a key store that contains trusted, self-signed certificates and certificate authority (CA) certificates. These certificates are trusted certificates used to with any applications in your deployment. |
| Use certificate path reference: Certificate store reference | Contains a collection of X.509 certificates. These certificates are not trusted for all applications in your deployment, but might be used as an intermediary to validate certificates for an application. |
If you configure the client and server signing information correctly, but receive a Soap body not signed error when running the client, you might need to configure the actor. You can configure the actor in the following locations on the client in the Web Services Client Editor within the Application Server Toolkit:
You must configure the same actor strings for the Web service on the server, which processes the request and sends the response back. Configure the actor in the following locations in the Web Services Editor within the WebSphere Application Server Toolkit:
The actor information on both the client and server must refer to the same exact string. When the actor fields on the client and server match, the request or response is acted upon instead of being forwarded downstream. The actor fields might be different when you have Web services acting as a gateway to other Web services. However, in all other cases, make sure that the actor information matches on the client and server. When Web services are acting as a gateway and they do not have the same actor configured as the request passing through the gateway, Web services do not process the message from a client. Instead, these Web services send the request downstream. The downstream process that contains the correct actor string processes the request. The same situation occurs for the response. Therefore, it is important that you verify that the appropriate client and server actor fields are synchronized. You have specified the method that the server uses to verify the digital signature in the message parts.