RE: [dss] OASIS DSS "Request for Feedback" - Signing Templates

[Rich Salz <rsalz@datapower.com>]

> The template
> approach does not advocate dropping input editing and validation.

One possible concern is that the DSIG spec has a number of extension
points (dsig:Object, for example), and a DSS server has to make sure that
the client hasn't "slipped in" something past the server.  As another
concern, consider a single keypair which has been certified multiple
times.  WS-Security and WS-I basic security profile have just been dealing
with this. A template approach might allow a client to identify the
"wrong" signing certificate; for example, the low-liability cert even tho
the server is (only?) authorized to use the high-value, corporate-level,
cert.

These are not insoluble problems, but taken overall I think the approach
is too risky to put into the core.  It could require a great deal of
*semantic* understanding, as opposed to lexical/syntactic understanding,
of every request.

	/r$

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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