Securing requests to the trust service using system policy sets

WebSphere® Application Server provides message-level protection for its security token service, known as the WebSphere Application Server trust service. For the trust service, you must use a special class of policy sets known as system policy sets.

1. Define a new system policy set or manage existing system policy sets.
   To manage system policy sets, you can perform the following tasks:
   1. Define the system policy set and binding.
      The system policy set can be a new or existing policy set. If you create a new system policy set, you must specify and configure the policy types. A default binding configuration is associated with each policy type.
   2. Modify the system policy set, as needed.

      Other optional policy set-related tasks that you can perform include:

      • Add, edit, or remove policy set attachments.
      • Edit, enable, disable or remove policy types
      • Create a system policy set by selecting and copying an existing system policy set. When copying an existing system policy set, you also specify whether to move the existing attachments to this new system policy set.
      • Delete system policy sets. You cannot delete pre-configured system policy sets that are provided by WebSphere Application Server by default.
      • Archive a system policy set by selecting and exporting an existing system policy set. When exporting an existing system policy set, you create a .zip archive file. The .zip file for exporting the policy set is provided for downloading. For example, if you have a policy set named ABC_ps and you want to export and move the archive file from ServerA to ServerB, first use the export function to create the .zip file. Then, manually transfer the archive file to ServerB.
2. Create and manage explicit attachments.
   You can perform the following trust service attachment tasks:
   1. Attach the system policy set and assign a binding to an endpoint.
      For an endpoint, you can create explicit attachments for each of the four trust service operations to the respective Trust Service Defaults policy sets and bindings. After you have created these initial attachments, you can view and further modify existing policy set and binding configurations.
   2. Modify existing policy set attachment and binding configurations, as needed..
      The system policy set can be a new or existing policy set. If you create a new system policy set, you must specify and configure the policy types. A default binding configuration is associated with each policy type.

      The system policy set that is attached to issue and renew must correspond to the client and endpoint’s bootstrap policy set and the system policy set attached to validate and cancel must correspond to the client and endpoint’s application policy set. The bootstrap policy set for the endpoint service is only required if the endpoint service makes issue and renew requests to the trust service.

      Other optional attachment-related tasks that you can perform include:

      • Change the system policy set and binding configurations.
      • Create custom system policy sets and bindings.
      • Attach each of the four default trust service operations to a system policy set and binding.
      • Attach each of the four trust service operations associated with a specific endpoint to a system policy set and binding.
      • Specify that the selected trust service operations for an endpoint inherit the respective default trust service policy set and binding.
      • Assign the Default binding or a custom binding configuration to the selected policy set attachment.
      • Update the trust service runtime configuration.
3. Manage the security context token provider that the trust service provides.
   You can perform the following trust service token provider tasks:
   1. Modify the configuration of the Security Context Token provider, as needed..

      Other optional token provider-related tasks that you can perform include:

      • Update the trust service runtime configuration for any token provider configuration changes.
4. Manage the trust service default token provider and any endpoints that have an explicitly assigned token (rather than inheriting from the default).
   Targets are endpoints that are assigned a specific token provider. You can perform the following trust service target tasks:
   1. Create a new trust service target by explicitly assigning a service endpoint URL to the default token provider..
      Performing this task creates an explicit assignment to the default trust service token provider, the Security Context Token. All other endpoints inherit the trust service default token provider.
   2. Configure a target.
      WebSphere Application Server defines one default supported token provider, the Security Context Token. Other tasks that you can perform for existing targets include:

      • Modifying one or more endpoints that have a security context token provider explicitly assigned.
      • Changing the token provider for an endpoint from inherited to explicitly assigned. Therefore, the token provider for the endpoint does not change as the default trust service token provider changes.
      • Changing the token provider for an endpoint from explicitly assigned to inherited. Therefore, the token provider for the endpoint is the default trust service token provider and changes as the default changes.
      • Updating the trust service runtime configuration.
5. Configure the security cache.
   You can change the behavior of client-side security caching.
6. Update the trust service runtime configuration.
   You must update the runtime configuration whenever one or all of the following trust-related items are created or changed:

   • Trust service attachments
   • Token providers
   • Targets