Re: [wss] SOAP MustUnderstand issue

[Rich Salz <rsalz@datapower.com>]

> It seems that the relationship of interoperability and
> adequate/appropriate security processing is of concern here. If
> mustUnderstand is false, does that mean security is lost? I'd say no,
> since it is the relying party's obligation regardless to make sure
> policy is met - i.e. it shouldn't be driven by mustUnderstand.

Chris Ferris and I have been talking about this.  Here's an example
we came up with.  Suppose I add a "notAfter" attribute to a WSS
identity token that specifies an expiration period.  Clearly the
recipient ignores that at their own peril, and without the sender-provided
advice they might ignore it.

I still believe the application (or its policy configuration that drives
the WSS library layer) determines when mustUnderstand should be
set.  But I'm beginning to think that the WSS layer (as driven by
policy) knows best when the semantics of *its* elements are being
changed.  This would imply that we need a "wsse:mustUnderstand"
attribute on all our toplevel elements.
        /r$


--
Rich Salz                  Chief Security Architect
DataPower Technology       http://www.datapower.com
XS40 XML Security Gateway  http://www.datapower.com/products/xs40.html
XML Security Overview      http://www.datapower.com/xmldev/xmlsecurity.html