NON-REPUDIATION IN WEB SERVICES INTERACTIONS

Abstract

A Web service is a set of programmable functions that could be invoked and consumed through some Internet protocols. The design of Web services has been plagued with security flaws. Web services invocations could be executed on the fly with the invokers remain anonymous. The Web services creators tend to overlook the need to securely identify the identity of the Web services consumers and the confidentiality and integrity of the interacted entities and processes among the Web services. This paper attempts to model the potential threats and vulnerabilities that plague the interactions among Web services. The proposed model is presented as a set of UML sequence diagrams that show the critical points where Web services interactions could pose a severe threat to both the Web services consumers and creators. At the end of this paper, the need for identifying the entities and processes involved in a Web service interaction is highlighted through the recommendation of possible non-repudiation capabilities in Web services.