1.1 Glossary

This document uses the following terms:

authentication: The act of proving an identity to a server while providing key material that binds the identity to subsequent communications.

base64 encoding: A binary-to-text encoding scheme whereby an arbitrary sequence of bytes is converted to a sequence of printable ASCII characters, as described in [RFC4648].

certificate: (1) A certificate is a collection of attributes and extensions that can be stored persistently. The set of attributes in a certificate can vary depending on the intended usage of the certificate. A certificate securely binds a public key to the entity that holds the corresponding private key. A certificate is commonly used for authentication and secure exchange of information on open networks, such as the Internet, extranets, and intranets. Certificates are digitally signed by the issuing certification authority (CA) and can be issued for a user, a computer, or a service. The most widely accepted format for certificates is defined by the ITU-T X.509 version 3 international standards. For more information about attributes and extensions, see [RFC3280] and [X509] sections 7 and 8.

(2) When referring to X.509v3 certificates, that information consists of a public key, a distinguished name (DN) of some entity assumed to have control over the private key corresponding to the public key in the certificate, and some number of other attributes and extensions assumed to relate to the entity thus referenced. Other forms of certificates can bind other pieces of information.

certificate chain: A sequence of certificates, where each certificate in the sequence is signed by the subsequent certificate. The last certificate in the chain is normally a self-signed certificate.

certification: The certificate (1) request and issuance process whereby an end entity first makes itself known to a certification authority (CA) (directly, or through a registration authority) through the submission of a certificate enrollment request, prior to that CA issuing a certificate (1) or certificates (1) for that end entity.

certification authority (CA): A third party that issues public key certificates (1). Certificates serve to bind public keys to a user identity. Each user and certification authority (CA) can decide whether to trust another user or CA for a specific purpose, and whether this trust should be transitive. For more information, see [RFC3280].

endpoint: A device that is connected to a computer network.

fully qualified domain name (FQDN): An unambiguous domain name that gives an absolute location in the Domain Name System's (DNS) hierarchy tree, as defined in [RFC1035] section 3.1 and [RFC2181] section 11.

globally unique identifier (GUID): A term used interchangeably with universally unique identifier (UUID) in Microsoft protocol technical documents (TDs). Interchanging the usage of these terms does not imply or require a specific algorithm or mechanism to generate the value. Specifically, the use of this term does not imply or require that the algorithms described in [RFC4122] or [C706] must be used for generating the GUID. See also universally unique identifier (UUID).

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP): An application-level protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems (text, graphic images, sound, video, and other multimedia files) on the World Wide Web.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS): An extension of HTTP that securely encrypts and decrypts web page requests. In some older protocols, "Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure Sockets Layer" is still used (Secure Sockets Layer has been deprecated). For more information, see [SSL3] and [RFC5246].

Integrated Windows authentication: A configuration setting that enables negotiation of authentication protocols in Internet Information Services (IIS). Integrated Windows authentication is more secure than Basic authentication, because the user name and password are hashed instead of plaintext.

Kerberos: An authentication system that enables two parties to exchange private information across an otherwise open network by assigning a unique key (called a ticket) to each user that logs on to the network and then embedding these tickets into messages sent by the users. For more information, see [MS-KILE].

NT LAN Manager (NTLM) Authentication Protocol: A protocol using a challenge-response mechanism for authentication in which clients are able to verify their identities without sending a password to the server. It consists of three messages, commonly referred to as Type 1 (negotiation), Type 2 (challenge) and Type 3 (authentication).

private key: One of a pair of keys used in public-key cryptography. The private key is kept secret and is used to decrypt data that has been encrypted with the corresponding public key. For an introduction to this concept, see [CRYPTO] section 1.8 and [IEEE1363] section 3.1.

proxy: A computer, or the software that runs on it, that acts as a barrier between a network and the Internet by presenting only a single network address to external sites. By acting as a go-between that represents all internal computers, the proxy helps protects network identities while also providing access to the Internet.

public key: One of a pair of keys used in public-key cryptography. The public key is distributed freely and published as part of a digital certificate. For an introduction to this concept, see [CRYPTO] section 1.8 and [IEEE1363] section 3.1.

Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML): The set of specifications that describe security assertions encoded in XML, profiles for attaching assertions to protocols and frameworks, request/response protocols used to obtain assertions, and the protocol bindings to transfer protocols, such as SOAP and HTTP.

security association (SA): A simplex "connection" that provides security services to the traffic carried by it. See [RFC4301] for more information.

security token: An opaque message or data packet produced by a Generic Security Services (GSS)-style authentication package and carried by the application protocol. The application has no visibility into the contents of the token.

security token service (STS): A web service that issues claims and packages them in encrypted security tokens.

server: A replicating machine that sends replicated files to a partner (client). The term "server" refers to the machine acting in response to requests from partners that want to receive replicated files.

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP): An application-layer control (signaling) protocol for creating, modifying, and terminating sessions with one or more participants. SIP is defined in [RFC3261].

SOAP: A lightweight protocol for exchanging structured information in a decentralized, distributed environment. SOAP uses XML technologies to define an extensible messaging framework, which provides a message construct that can be exchanged over a variety of underlying protocols. The framework has been designed to be independent of any particular programming model and other implementation-specific semantics. SOAP 1.2 supersedes SOAP 1.1. See [SOAP1.2-1/2003].

SOAP fault: A container for error and status information within a SOAP message. See [SOAP1.2-1/2007] section 5.4 for more information.

SOAP message: An XML document consisting of a mandatory SOAP envelope, an optional SOAP header, and a mandatory SOAP body. See [SOAP1.2-1/2007] section 5 for more information.

Transport Layer Security (TLS): A security protocol that supports confidentiality and integrity of messages in client and server applications communicating over open networks. TLS supports server and, optionally, client authentication by using X.509 certificates (as specified in [X509]). TLS is standardized in the IETF TLS working group.

Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): A string that identifies a resource. The URI is an addressing mechanism defined in Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax [RFC3986].

Uniform Resource Locator (URL): A string of characters in a standardized format that identifies a document or resource on the World Wide Web. The format is as specified in [RFC1738].

user agent server (UAS): A logical entity that generates a response to a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) request. The response either accepts, rejects, or redirects the request. The role of the UAS lasts only for the duration of that transaction. If a process responds to a request, it acts as a UAS for that transaction. If it initiates a request later, it assumes the role of a user agent client (UAC) for that transaction.

web application: A software application that uses HTTP as its core communication protocol and delivers information to the user by using web-based languages such as HTML and XML.

web service: A unit of application logic that provides data and services to other applications and can be called by using standard Internet transport protocols such as HTTP, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), or File Transfer Protocol (FTP). Web services can perform functions that range from simple requests to complicated business processes.

Web Services Description Language (WSDL): An XML format for describing network services as a set of endpoints that operate on messages that contain either document-oriented or procedure-oriented information. The operations and messages are described abstractly and are bound to a concrete network protocol and message format in order to define an endpoint. Related concrete endpoints are combined into abstract endpoints, which describe a network service. WSDL is extensible, which allows the description of endpoints and their messages regardless of the message formats or network protocols that are used.

web ticket: A security token that is sent by a protocol client to a web application during authentication. The security token can be included in either the body or the header of an HTTP message.

WSDL message: An abstract, typed definition of the data that is communicated during a WSDL operation [WSDL]. Also, an element that describes the data being exchanged between web service providers and clients.

WSDL operation: A single action or function of a web service. The execution of a WSDL operation typically requires the exchange of messages between the service requestor and the service provider.

X.509: An ITU-T standard for public key infrastructure subsequently adapted by the IETF, as specified in [RFC3280].

XML namespace: A collection of names that is used to identify elements, types, and attributes in XML documents identified in a URI reference [RFC3986]. A combination of XML namespace and local name allows XML documents to use elements, types, and attributes that have the same names but come from different sources. For more information, see [XMLNS-2ED].

XML schema: A description of a type of XML document that is typically expressed in terms of constraints on the structure and content of documents of that type, in addition to the basic syntax constraints that are imposed by XML itself. An XML schema provides a view of a document type at a relatively high level of abstraction.

XML schema definition (XSD): The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standard language that is used in defining XML schemas. Schemas are useful for enforcing structure and constraining the types of data that can be used validly within other XML documents. XML schema definition refers to the fully specified and currently recommended standard for use in authoring XML schemas.

MAY, SHOULD, MUST, SHOULD NOT, MUST NOT: These terms (in all caps) are used as defined in [RFC2119]. All statements of optional behavior use either MAY, SHOULD, or SHOULD NOT.