Implement Secure .NET Web Services with WS-Security

Web Services Enhancements 1.0 for Microsoft .NET (WSE) provides the functionality for Microsoft .NET Framework developers to support the latest Web services capabilities. WSE is the cornerstone of the GXA (Global XML Web-Services Architecture), an architecture of proposed Web services standards that Microsoft, IBM, and other companies have written. (Table 1 describes the core specifications of GXA.)

This article examines the GXA's WS-Security spec and demonstrates how you can use it to implement secure .NET Web services by digitally signing, encrypting, and adding security credentials to SOAP messages.