- XKMS
XML Key Management Specification (XKMS) uses the
web service s framework to make it easier for developers to secure inter-application communication usingpublic key infrastructure (PKI).XML Key Management Specification is a protocol developed byW3C which describes the distribution and registration of public keys. Services can access an XKMS compliant server in order to receive updated key information forencryption and authentication.Architecture
XKMS consists of two parts:;XKISS: XML Key Information Service Specification;XKRSS: XML Key Registration Service Specification
The XKISS service specification is concerned with management of the public component of a public key pair. The XKRSS is concerned with management of private keys.
In both cases the goal of XKMS is to allow all the complexity of traditional PKI implementations to be offloaded from the client to an external service. While this approach was originally suggested by Diffie and Hellman in their New Directions paper this was generally considered impractical at the time leading to commercial development focusing on the certificate based approach proposed by
Loren Kohnfelder .Development history
The team that developed the original XKMS proposal submitted to the W3C included
Warwick Ford ,Phillip Hallam-Baker (editor) andBrian LaMacchia . The architectural approach is closely related to the MIT PGP Key server originally created and maintained by Brian LaMacchia. The realization in XML is closely related toSAML , the first edition of which was also edited by Hallam-Baker.At the time XKMS was proposed no security infrastructure was defined for the then entirely new
SOAP protocol for Web Services. As a result a large part of the XKMS specification is concerned with the definition of security 'bindings' for specific Web Services protocols.See also
*
XML Signature andXML Encryption , two other W3C standards used by the XKMS protocol.External links
* [http://sqldata.com/XKMS.htm XKMS at SQLData]
* [http://www.w3.org/TR/xkms2/ XKMS at the W3C]
* [http://www.entrust.com/standards/xkms.htm XKMS at Entrust]
* [http://markupsecurity.com/info/xkms/index.html XKMS at Markup Security]
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