ebXML Message Security

We will now proceed to describe the security requirements for the ebXML message service.

Overview

The ebXML message service specification describes and defines the message enveloping and header document schema that will be used to communicate using ebXML messages. It is intended to be neutral vis- -vis lower-level protocols, but the current standard provides a binding to HTTP/HTTPS and SMTP. It is intended that other protocols can, and will be, used.

An ebXML message consists of a MIME multipart message, organized in accordance with the SOAP messages with attachment specification. The first MIME attachment in an ebXML message is referred to as the header container, and contains one SOAP 1.1–compliant message. Thereafter, an ebXML message consists of 0 or more additional MIME parts, referred to as payload containers, which hold application-level data. Essentially, this first MIME attachment is where ebXML specifies the location, nature, and format of control, routing, and (of special interest to us) security information.