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158 lines
6.9 KiB
158 lines
6.9 KiB
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
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"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.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 Encryption Activity Statement</title>
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<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet"
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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><a href="http://www.w3.org/"><img src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/w3c_home"
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alt="W3C" height="48" width="72" /></a><a
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href="http://www.w3.org/tands/"><img src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/tands"
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alt="Technology and Society Domain" 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 Encryption<br />
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Activity Statement</h1>
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<div class="splash">
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<p>Work on Encryption 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>Encryption renders data (plain-text) confidential (cipher-text) such that
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it can be safely stored or transmitted and only the intended recipients can
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restore the data to its original form. This feature is important given that
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many applications are using the Internet to exchange sensitive information
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such as payment and purchase orders. In view of recent Web technology
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developments, the work of the XML Encryption Activity is to specify XML
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encryption syntax and processing for encrypting XML in whole or part (e.g.,
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element). This can then be used by XML applications, such as <a
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href="http://www.w3.org/2000/xp/">XML Protocol</a>.</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>Encryption is the process of securing information so that while it is
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accessible to a wide community (those with access to your hard drive or
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network) it is not meaningful to those unintended intermediaries and
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eavesdroppers. The data has been rendered opaque by mathematically scrambling
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(encrypting) it in a way that makes it unreadable to anyone except those
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possessing the secret (key) to unscramble (decrypt) it. The two most common
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types of cryptography are symmetric (same key) and asymmetric (public-key)
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cryptography. In symmetric key cryptography, a message is encrypted and
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decrypted using the same key, which must be confidentially exchanged in a
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separate transmission. For instance, two people could take a message
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represented in binary and scramble it with a random set of binary digits (one
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time pad); only the other party possessing the same secret can descramble the
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message. Of course, this begs the question of how one securely exchanges the
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one time pad!</p>
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<p>This question is addressed by public-key (asymmetric) cryptography wherein
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every party to a communication has a public and private key that are
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inversely related to each other. Any message encrypted with the publicly
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available key can only be decrypted by its corresponding privately held key.
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Interestingly, this same relationship permits for public-key <a
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href="http://www.w3.org/Signature/">digital signatures</a> wherein any person
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with the public key can confirm that a person with the corresponding private
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key used it to secure the message. Because symmetric (same) key cryptography
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is very efficient, confidential interactions frequently start by exchanging a
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symmetric key using asymmetric (public) key cryptography.</p>
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<h3>Encryption and XML</h3>
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<p>The <a href="http://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. An
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XML document can be secured using many of the existing cryptographic
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standards. However, many XML applications need to encrypt portions of XML
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documents such that some data can be secured, while other data is still
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available. Additionally, this feature needs to work with the selective
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signing feature of <a href="http://www.w3.org/Signature/">XML
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Signature</a>.This is the motivation of the XML Encryption Activity.</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 an Activity of the W3C.</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>In March 2002, the Working Group published a <a
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href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-encryption-req">XML Encryption
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Requirements</a> W3C Note. In December 2002, <a
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href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlenc-core/">XML Encryption Syntax and
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Processing</a> and the <a
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href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlenc-decrypt">Decryption Transform for XML
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Signature</a> were published as Recommendations. There are 4 implementations
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<a href="http://www.w3.org/Encryption/2002/02-xenc-interop.html">reporting
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interoperability</a>, including 1 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 Encryption 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 of errata, operational experience, and requirements for new
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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 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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</div>
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<p>Last modified $Date: 2003/05/14 09:17:51 $</p>
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<p><a rel="Copyright"
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href="/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice#Copyright">Copyright</a> © 2001-2003 <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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statements.</p>
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<p></p>
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</body>
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</html>
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