Before you begin
Why and when to perform this task
Complete the following steps to configure the client for response digital signature verification. The steps describe how to modify the extensions to indicate which digital signature method the client will use during verification.Steps for this task
Name | Purpose |
---|---|
Canonicalization method algorithm | The canonicalization method algorithm is used to canonicalize the <SignedInfo> element before it is digested as part of the signature operation. |
Digest method algorithm | The digest method algorithm is the algorithm applied to the data after transforms are applied, if specified, to yield the <DigestValue>. The signing of the <DigestValue> binds resource content to the signer key. The algorithm selected for the client response receiver configuration must match the algorithm selected in the server response sender configuration. |
Signature method algorithm | The signature method is the algorithm that is used to convert the canonicalized <SignedInfo> element into the <SignatureValue> element. The algorithm selected for the client response receiver configuration must match the algorithm selected in the server response sender configuration. |
Use certificate path reference or Trust any certificate | When a message is signed, the public key used to sign it is transmitted with the message. To validate this public key at the receiving end, configure a certificate path reference. By selecting User certificate path reference, you must configure a trust anchor reference and certificate store reference to validate the certificate sent with the message. By selecting trust any certificate, the signature is validated by the certificate sent with the message without the certificate itself being validated. |
Use certificate path reference: Trust anchor reference | A trust anchor is a configuration that refers to a keystore that contains trusted, self-signed certificates and certificate authority (CA) certificates. These certificates are trusted certificates that you can use with any applications in your deployment. |
Use certificate path reference: Certificate store reference | A certificate store is a configuration that has a collection of X.509 certificates. These certificates are not trusted for all applications in your deployment, but might be used as an intermediary to validate certificates for an application. |
Result
The actor information on both the client and server must refer to the same exact string. When the actor fields on the client and server match, the request or response is acted upon instead of being forwarded downstream. The actor fields might be different when you have Web services acting as a gateway to other Web services. However, in all other cases, make sure that the actor information matches on the client and server. When Web services are acting as a gateway and they do not have the same actor configured as the request passing through the gateway, Web services do not process the message from a client. Instead, these Web services send the request downstream. The downstream process that contains the correct actor string processes the request. The same situation occurs for the response. Therefore, it is important that you verify that the appropriate client and server actor fields are synchronized.
What to do next
After you configure the server for response signing and the client for request digital signature verification, verify that you have configured the client and the server to handle the message request.Related concepts
Trust anchors
Collection certificate store
Related tasks
Configuring the server security bindings using an assembly tool
Configuring the server security bindings using the administrative console
Configuring the client for response digital signature verification:
verifying the message parts
Configuring trust anchors using an assembly tool
Configuring trust anchors using the administrative console
Configuring the server-side collection certificate store using an assembly
tool
Configuring the client-side collection certificate store using an assembly
tool
Configuring the client-side collection certificate store using the
administrative console
Configuring default collection certificate stores at the server level
in the WebSphere Application Server administrative console
Related information
XML-Signature Syntax and Processing: W3C Recommendation 12 February
2002