Towards secure XML federations

Abstract

The integration of isolated XML repositories has drawn more and more interest recently. In this paper, we propose XMLfederations to provide global e-services while preserving the necessary autonomy and security of each individual repository. First we show a logical architecture of XML federations, which is adapted from the common architecture of traditional federated databases according to the unique requirements of XML federations. On the basis of the architecture, we address security issues of XML federations, especially the authentication and authorization of federation users. We point out several problems in applying existing access control schemes and give our solutions. © 2003 by Springer Science+Business Media New York.