i-Lab Guide To: XML Security

What Is It ?	XML Security is a general term that applies to a number of technologies and standards intended to make the exchange of XML data, more secure.

Technologies
XML Encryption	Any branch of an XML document can be replaced by an EncryptedData element containing the encrypted CypherData and optional information about the encryption method and key
XML Digital Signature	A Signature element is use to provide authentication, integrity and non-repudiation of a branch of an XML document using an encrypted digest of that information
SAML	Security Assertions Markup Language - XML exchange of authentication/authorisation information, e.g. to facilitate Single Sign On (SSO)
XACML	eXtensible Access Control Markup Language - generic XML syntax for managing access to distributed resources using policy definitions
XKMS	XML Key Management Specification - Protocols for registering keys with escrow services, locating public keys, and validating them without the need for heavyweight PKI clients.
WS-Security	A suite of specifications for end-to-end SOAP messaging security. Builds upon XML Encryption, XML Digital Signatures, SAML using a set of SOAP header extensions.
Liberty Alliance	A project aimed at providing an opern standard federated identity/trust architecture for distributed authentication without centralised control.