Standards and profiles address how to provide protection for messages that are exchanged in a Web service environment.
The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) Web services security (WS-Security) V1.0 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. Web services security for WebSphere Application Server for Versions 6 and later is based on standards that are included in the OASIS Web Services Security Version 1.0 specification, the Username Token V1.0 Profile, the X.509 Token V1.0 Profile, and a SOAP with Attachments (SWA) V1.0 Profile.
To secure Web services, consider a broad set of security requirements, including authentication, authorization, privacy, trust, integrity, confidentiality, secure communications channels, 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 in heterogeneous environments. The complete Web services security protocol stack and technology roadmap is described in Security in a Web Services World: A Proposed Architecture and Roadmap.
The Web Services Security: SOAP Message Security 1.0 specification outlines a standard set of SOAP 1.1 extensions used to 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 username 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. However, the required security tokens are not defined in the Web service security V1.0 specification. Instead, the tokens are defined in separate profiles such as the Username token profile, the X.509 token profile, and so on.
Web service security is supported in the managed Web service container. To establish a managed environment and to enforce constraints for Web services security, perform a Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) lookup on the client to resolve the service reference.
Compatibility between WebSphere Application Server V6.1 and V5.x
In WebSphere Application Server V6.1, you can run a V5.x Web services-secured application on a V6.1 application server. However, when you use a Web services-secured application, the client and the server must use the same version of the application server. For example, a Web services-secured application does not work properly when the client uses WebSphere Application Server V6.1 and the server uses V5.x. Conversely, a Web services-secured application does not work properly when the client uses WebSphere Application Server Version 5.x and the server uses V6.1. This issue occurs because the SOAP message format is different between a Version 5.x application and a V6 or later application.
To secure Web services with WebSphere Application Server, specify several different configurations. Although there is not a specific sequence in which specify these different configurations, some configurations reference other configurations. See Configuration considerations for Web services security.
Because of the relationship between the different Web services security configurations, IBM recommends that you specify the configurations on each level of the configuration in the following order. You can choose to configure Web services security for the application level, the server level or the cell level as it depends upon your environment and security needs.