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Introduction to Implementing XML web services authentication

Introduction to Implementing XML web services authentication. John Messing Law-on-Line, Inc. Prepared for Maricopa County ICJIS May 17, 2006. Legal: Proving up audit trails. Regulatory contexts (Sarbanes-Oxley) Evidence in court - In re Vee Vinhnee, 336 BR 437 (BAP 9 th Cir. 2005).

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Introduction to Implementing XML web services authentication

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  1. Introduction to Implementing XML web services authentication John Messing Law-on-Line, Inc. Prepared for Maricopa County ICJIS May 17, 2006

  2. Legal: Proving up audit trails • Regulatory contexts (Sarbanes-Oxley) • Evidence in court - In re Vee Vinhnee, 336 BR 437 (BAP 9th Cir. 2005). • Digital data base records offered into evidence must be established first as unchanged since creation through foundational testimony from a qualified witness, preferably aided by cryptographic protections.

  3. SAML and WSS: related OASIS standards • Not yet interoperable • But WSS includes a SAML profile

  4. SAML • Authentication for • Access control • Audit purposes • Used with • Web browsers • SOAP messages

  5. WSS • Protections for SOAP messages on the wire • Defines bindings for W3C XML encryption and XML signatures to SOAP messages • Conveys security tokens in SOAP headers for credentialing, integrity and confidentiality • WSS profiles • Kerberos tickets • X.509 certificates • Username/Password tokens • SAML Assertions • XRML Licenses

  6. Limited protection • For data in transit between the end user’s machine and the web service. • No protection against malware on the user’s machine that hijacks a legitimate authentication. • Serious Internet banking problem • May need also to capture and data-mine usage • Not yet addressed by standards

  7. Scope • SAML • authentication for single sign-on purposes • includes web browsing in addition to SOAP • WSS • Broader purposes such as digital rights protection, but includes only SOAP

  8. Techniques • WSS places SAML token inside the header to authenticate the SOAP body. • In SAML itself, the assertion resides in the SOAP body, to authenticate the user. • Since SAML 2.0, attributes can be encrypted, so features are otherwise comparable in many ways. • NB – Signing, encryption, and Base64 encoding in addition XML parsing are processor-intensive operations that can limit the scalability of SOA implementations.

  9. Usefulness • Federated authentication can be indispensable across security domains. • SAML generally is more mature than WSS • MS opposes SAML except as part of WSS • WS-I.org – implementation vetting efforts by vendors supporting WSS • SAML and WSS each seem compatible with GJXML, NIEM and ECF 3.x

  10. Security Token Service • Brokered authentication to mediate non-interoperable security methods and update diverse security data stores. • Relies on WS-Trust and WSS SAML profile • Useful where DotNet implementations interact with non-MS web services in SOA • Custom built or proprietary solutions

  11. Document security • SAML and WSS do not address document level security. • Acrobat 5+ and OASIS DSS do. • ECF 3.0 provides for document level security (5 signature profiles) and allows for optional messaging layer security using WS-I BP 1.0 (WSS derived)

  12. Related presentations • SAML update • SAML animation • WSS 1.1 • STS

  13. IPR Considerations • Open standards usually provide for an agreement to license proprietary intellectual property of vendors to participants that is needed to implement a standard. • The terms are generally not self-executing. • Requesting and obtaining licenses can be time-consuming and frustrating. But it must be done. • E.g. WebMethod and Epicentric patent claims to SOAP 1.2. • Obtain licenses from all vendor participants who agree to the use of their IPR in the standards. • Understand the license terms and implications, including royalty obligations, before investing heavily.

  14. End • John Messing • Law-on-Line, Inc. • 5151 E. Broadway Blvd., Suite 1600 • Tucson, AZ 85711 • (520) 512-5432 (office) • (520) 512-5401 (fax) • (520) 270-1953 (mobile) • johnmessing@lawonline.biz

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