RE: [wss] WSS Focus

[Gene Thurston <gthurston@amberpoint.com>]

I think we all know that “WS-Security” (short for “Web Services Security”) is a bit of a misnomer, in that it only really deals with (basically) three specific security topics in the context of web services:

1.       The inclusion of security tokens (of any kind).

2.       Digitally signatures in SOAP messages via XML Signature.

3.       Encryption in SOAP messages via XML Encryption.

 

Essentially, only these pieces of SOAP message security, and clearly not the full spectrum of “security for web services”.  The charter and scope of our TC, which was published prior to our first meeting, and which we all “clarified”, voted on, and accepted yesterday, stated only that we will deal only with the WS-Security specification (i.e., the above three items), along with some “profiles” for a select list of some of the more commonly used security tokens.

 

I firmly believe that topics such as:

• WSDL work for publishing what a web service can/will allow,
• “in-line” negotiation of quality of security,
• and all those other important aspects of security that are necessary in the broader sense of the term “Web Services Security”,

are important (and in some cases CRITICAL) for web services to be fully utilized by industry.

 

That said, I have to agree with those who point out this was not in the original TC charter, and that others may have attended had they seen this in the charter.  Therefore, I must conclude that we should not increase the scope of our work to include these items.  I just wish our TC was not called “Web Services Security”, since that undoubtedly will conjure up the image that we will solve all security issues related to web services.

 

- Gene Thurston –

AmberPoint, Inc.

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Munter, Joel D [mailto:joel.d.munter@intel.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 05, 2002 4:32 PM
To: wss@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: RE: [wss] WSS Focus

 

Alex,

It is my humble opinion that we should eventually create a real Web Services Security [set of] Specification[s] with the first significant deliverable being the SOAP Security Header ("core") Specification described by WS-Security and the additional profile doc's that we discussed at the FTF.  We should absolutely target these 1st deliverables as soon as is feasible.  If the charter and scope need to be readjusted after the closure of these first deliverables then so be it, let's adjust them; and then taking into account comments heard from Hemma and others today, we should advertise the scope/charter changes and invite new contributors.

Joel

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Jan Alexander [mailto:alex@systinet.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 05, 2002 4:04 PM
To: wss@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: [wss] WSS Focus

Hi all,

 

I think we should answer a question, if we want to create real Web Service Security specification or just SOAP security header specification. We should do it in very short time.

 

Because in Web Service Security specification, we should handle issues for example with in-band negotiation (for example for security token type, or the QoS and whatever else), proof of possession, WSDL extensibility elements for declarative security information (required QoS, etc.) and many other things in the core spec. We can of course do it in steps, explicitly stating what will be in the 1.0 version of the spec.

 

On the other hand, if we want to just specify SOAP message header, we need only to cope with the attaching opaque (from the spec point of view) security tokens with the message and cryptographic binding of these tokens with the message (by means of XML Signature and XML Encryption) in the core spec. We can then say, that everything else is out of the scope of the core spec.

 

I think the answer to this question should give us background for the requirements document. The use-cases document will be influenced very much by this answer as well.

 

cheers,

 

alex

 

Jan Alexander
Chief Architect, Systinet (formerly Idoox)
http://www.systinet.com