Verifying consumer signing information to protect message integrity using WSS APIs

You can verify the signing information to protect message integrity for the response (client side) consumer binding. Signing information includes the signature and the signed parts for the generator side as well as signature verification and verify parts for the consumer side. To keep the integrity of the message, digital signatures are typically applied.

Before you begin

Ensure that the signature and signed parts information has been configured. The signature verification information must match what was configured on the generator side.

About this task

Integrity refers to digital signature while confidentiality refers to encryption. Integrity is provided by applying a digital signature to a SOAP message. To configure the signing information to protect message integrity, you must first digitally sign and then verify the signature for the SOAP messages. Integrity decreases the risk of data modification when you transmit data across a network.

Also, message integrity is provided by verifying the digitally signed body, time stamp, and WS-Addressing headers using the signature verification algorithm methods. The WSS APIs specify which algorithm is to be used to verify the certificate. The signature algorithms specify the Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI) of the signature verification method. WebSphere® Application Server supports several pre-configured verification algorithm methods.

You can use the following interfaces to configure Web Services Security and to protect SOAP message integrity:

Use the administrative console to configure policy sets for signature verification.
Use the Web Services Security APIs (WSS API) to configure the SOAP message context (only for the client)

Perform the following verification tasks, using the WSS APIs, to configure the signing information and to protect message integrity for the consumer binding.

Procedure

Configure the signing information using the WSSSignature API.
Configure the signature verification information for the consumer binding using the WSSVerification API. Signature verification information is used to verify parts of a message including the SOAP body, the time stamp, and the WS-Addressing headers. Both verifying and decryption can be applied to the same message parts, such as the SOAP body.
Add or change verify parts using the WSSVerifyPart API.
Configure the client for request signing methods using the WSSVerification or WSSVerifyPart APIs.
To configure the client for response verification, choose the verification methods. Use the WSSVerification API to configure the canonicalization and signature methods. Use the WSSVerifyPart API to configure the digest and transform methods.

Results

By completing the steps in these tasks, you have configured the consumer verification information to protect the integrity of messages.