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170 lines
7.6 KiB
170 lines
7.6 KiB
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
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"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en-US" lang="en-US">
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<head>
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<title>XML Digital Signature Activity Statement</title>
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<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../StyleSheets/activity.css" />
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<style type="text/css">
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<!--
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body { background: #fff; color: #000; } /* for Windows IE3 */
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-->
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</style>
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</head>
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<body xml:lang="en" lang="en">
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<p class="banner"><a href="http://www.w3.org/"><img
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src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/w3c_home" alt="W3C" height="48" width="72"
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/></a><a href="http://www.w3.org/TandS/"><img
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src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/tands" alt="Technology and Society Domain"
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height="48" width="212" /></a><img
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src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/ActivityStatement" alt="Activity Statement"
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/></p>
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<h1>XML Digital Signatures<br />
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Activity Statement</h1>
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<div class="splash">
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<p>Work on Digital Signatures is being managed as part of W3C's <a
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href="../TandS/">Technology and Society</a> domain.</p>
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</div>
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<ol>
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<li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a></li>
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<li><a href="#role">Role of W3C</a></li>
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<li><a href="#current">Current Situation and Accomplishments</a></li>
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<li><a href="#future">What the Future Holds</a></li>
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<li><a href="#contact">Contact</a></li>
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</ol>
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<h2><a id="intro" name="intro"></a>Introduction</h2>
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<p>Digital signatures provide integrity, signature assurance and
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non-repudiatability over Web data. Such features are especially important for
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documents that represent commitments such as contracts, price lists, and
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manifests. In view of recent Web technology developments, future work will
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address the digital signing of XML -- and any of its applications such as <a
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href="http://www.w3.org/RDF/">RDF</a> (Resource Description Framework) or <a
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href="http://www.w3.org/P3P/">P3P</a> (Platform for Privacy Preferences).
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This capability is critical for a variety of electronic commerce
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applications, including payment tools.</p>
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<div class="color">
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<h2>Concepts Simply Explained</h2>
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<h3>Overview</h3>
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<p>Digital signatures are created and verified using cryptography, the branch
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of applied mathematics concerned with transforming messages into seemingly
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unintelligible forms and then back again. Digital signatures are created by
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performing an operation on information such that others can confirm that a
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holder of a secret performed the operation and that the signed information
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has not subsequently changed. In a symmetric key system, both the sender and
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receiver need to be privy to the secret. In the public key cryptographic
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system, the holder of the private (secret) key signs information, but anyone
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with access to the public key can confirm that the signature is valid. The
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novel feature of public key cryptography is that knowledge of the public key
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used to confirm signatures does not reveal information about the private key
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itself.</p>
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<h3>Web data and digital signatures</h3>
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<p>Structured information permits data to be readily read, exchanged, and
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acted upon by Web agents. The scope of such information often includes
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media-independent data for electronic publishing, electronic commerce and --
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critically -- information about other information (metadata). The <a
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href="http://www.w3.org/">W3C's</a> <a
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href="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml">Extensible Markup Language (XML)</a>
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Recommendation specifies a standard syntax for structuring Web documents. The
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content of the document structure is arbitrary; anyone can create a XML data
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structure (be it a bibliographic format or cooking recipe) as long as it is
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well-formed. By adding the ability to associate the semantics of the
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structured information to a resource one has the capability to make
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assertions about it! The W3C's <a id="PR-rdf-syntax"
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href="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-rdf-syntax/" name="PR-rdf-syntax">Resource
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Description Framework (RDF)</a> Recommendation as well as the work on the <a
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href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xlink/">XML Linking Language</a> provide this
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capability. For example, "The resource at http://example.com/~foo.html
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has a bibliographic entry as follows ...." The combination of metadata and
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digital signature capabilities will aid in building a genuine Web of
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Trust.</p>
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</div>
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<h2><a id="role" name="role">Role of W3C</a><a
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href="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-rdf-syntax/"></a></h2>
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<p>This Working Group is a joint activity of the W3C and the IETF.</p>
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<h2><a id="current" name="current">Current Situation and
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Accomplishments</a></h2>
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<p>All chartered deliverables have been completed.</p>
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<p>The <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xmldsig-requirements">XML-Signature
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Requirements</a> specification completed W3C Last Call in August 1999, and
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has been published as <a
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href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2807.txt">Informational RFC 2807</a>.</p>
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<p>In February 2002, the <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xmldsig-core/">XML
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Signature Syntax and Processing</a> specification was published as a W3C
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Recommendation. One month later it was published as Draft Standard <a
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href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3275.txt">RFC 3275</a>. As of April 2002,
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there are 15 implementations reporting interoperability, 3 of which are open
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source.</p>
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<p>In July 2002, the <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-exc-c14n">Exclusive
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Canonicalization</a> specification was published as a Recommendation. As of
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September 2002, there are 6 implementations reporting <a
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href="http://www.w3.org/Signature/2002/02/01-exc-c14n-interop.html">interoperability</a>,
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2 of which are open source.</p>
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<p>In November 2002, the <a
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href="Drafts/xmldsig-filter2/Overview.html">XML-Signature XPath Filter
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2.0</a> specification was published as a Recommendation. At that time, there
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are 5 implementations reporting <a
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href="http://www.w3.org/Signature/2002/05/xmldsig-filter2-interop.html">interoperability</a>,
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2 of which are open source.</p>
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<h2><a id="future" name="future">What the Future Holds</a></h2>
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<p>The XML Signature Working Group charter terminated on <span
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class="endingDate">2002-12-31</span>. The mailing list may be used for
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discussion discussion of errata, operational experience, and requirements for
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new work.</p>
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<h2><a id="contact" name="contact">Contact</a></h2>
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<address>
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<a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Reagle/Overview.html">Joseph M. Reagle
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Jr.</a>, <<a href="mailto:reagle@w3.org">reagle@w3.org</a>> W3C
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Activity Lead and Co-Chair
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</address>
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<div class="footer">
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<hr />
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<p><a href="http://validator.w3.org/"><img src="/Icons/valid-xhtml10"
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alt="Valid XHTML 1.0!" height="31" width="88" /></a></p>
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<p>Last modified $Date: 2003/04/27 06:33:07 $</p>
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<p class="copyright"><a rel="Copyright"
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href="/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice#Copyright">Copyright</a> © 1999-2003 <a
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href="/"><acronym
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title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</acronym></a><sup>®</sup> (<a
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href="http://www.lcs.mit.edu/"><acronym
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title="Massachusetts Institute of Technology">MIT</acronym></a>, <a
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href="http://www.ercim.org/"><acronym
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title="European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics">ERCIM</acronym></a>,
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<a href="http://www.keio.ac.jp/">Keio</a>), All Rights Reserved. W3C <a
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href="/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice#Legal_Disclaimer">liability</a>, <a
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href="/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice#W3C_Trademarks">trademark</a>, <a
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rel="Copyright" href="/Consortium/Legal/copyright-documents">document use</a>
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and <a rel="Copyright" href="/Consortium/Legal/copyright-software">software
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licensing</a> rules apply. Your interactions with this site are in accordance
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with our <a href="/Consortium/Legal/privacy-statement#Public">public</a> and
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</div>
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</body>
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</html>
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