Web services security and federated identity authentication

[karthick]

Web services security and federated identity authentication

Over the past few years as web services technology has matured, so has its use in complex line of business applications. Projects to create Service Oriented Architecture and Complex Supply Chain Integration are pushing the boundaries of present web services specifications.

As organizations and applications using web services collaborate across security domains the risks associated with compromised identities increase. In order to mitigate these risks a system of Federated Security domains is being used in web services projects. This paper will look at the concepts behind digital identities, aspects of web services security (WS-Security) and how federation is achieved in such a landscape.

Lastly it looks at Liberty Alliance ID-WSF and WS-Federation specifications and how they compare against each other. The paper finishes off with some recommendation for future projects to investigate and do a threat assessment of applications built to these two specifications.