Re: XPath Filter Transform and Namespace Declarations for Qualified Nodes

Hi Ed,

we're looking at ISSUE-115, have tracked it down this note of yours,  
and are confused about where you want to see text added.  Can you help  
us clarify?

Thanks,
--
Thomas Roessler, W3C  <tlr@w3.org>







On 7 Apr 2009, at 15:00, Ed Simon wrote:

> I received a question recently about declaring namespaces for  
> qualified
> nodes in the XPath string in an XPath Filtering Transform.  
> Essentially,
> it would appear that the XML Signature specification may need to be  
> more
> definitive about how such namespaces can be declared.
>
> What is fairly clearly allowed, though maybe not so clearly specified,
> by the XML Signature specification is the declaring of namespaces
> through attributes of the XML Signature <XPath> element as so:
>
>   <Document xmlns="http://example.org/doc">
>     <Title>Example 1</Title>
>   ...
>   <Signature xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#">
>     <SignedInfo>
>      ...
>       <Reference URI="">
>         <Transforms>
>           <Transform
> Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-xpath-19991116">
>             <XPath xmlns:doc="http://example.org/doc">
>             /doc:Document/doc:Title
>             </XPath>
>           </Transform>
>         </Transforms>
>         <DigestMethod
> Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#sha1"/>
>         <DigestValue></DigestValue>
>       </Reference>
>     </SignedInfo>
>     <SignatureValue></SignatureValue>
>    </Signature>
>    ...
>   </Document>
>
> The query I received asks, in the case of an enveloped signature, why
> cannot one reuse existing namespaces contexts like so:
>
>   <doc:Document xmlns:doc="http://example.org/doc">
>     <doc:Title>Example 1</doc:Title>
>   ...
>   <Signature xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#">
>     <SignedInfo>
>      ...
>       <Reference URI="">
>         <Transforms>
>           <Transform
> Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-xpath-19991116">
>             <XPath>
>             /doc:Document/doc:Title
>             </XPath>
>           </Transform>
>         </Transforms>
>         <DigestMethod
> Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#sha1"/>
>         <DigestValue></DigestValue>
>       </Reference>
>     </SignedInfo>
>     <SignatureValue></SignatureValue>
>    </Signature>
>    ...
>   </doc:Document>
>
> Part of my answer to that question would be that the namespace
> declaration is not signed could therefore be manipulated so that the
> signature still validates but the data being validated is not the data
> that is supposed to be signed by the signature. Therefore, it is
> important for namespace declarations used by the XPath Filtering
> Transform to be signed.
> Even so, that still leaves the possibility of putting the namespace
> declarations in a signed ancestor element such as <SignedInfo>. E.g.
>
>   <Document xmlns="http://example.org/doc">
>     <Title>Example 1</Title>
>   ...
>   <Signature xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#">
>     <SignedInfo xmlns:doc="http://example.org/doc">
>      ...
>       <Reference URI="">
>         <Transforms>
>           <Transform
> Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-xpath-19991116">
>             <XPath>
>             /doc:Document/doc:Title
>             </XPath>
>           </Transform>
>         </Transforms>
>         <DigestMethod
> Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#sha1"/>
>         <DigestValue></DigestValue>
>       </Reference>
>     </SignedInfo>
>     <SignatureValue></SignatureValue>
>    </Signature>
>    ...
>   </Document>
>
> Though that might be secure, and I can see that for enveloping
> signatures contain multiple objects in a certain namespace that some
> might want to reuse an existing, signed top-level namespace  
> declaration,
> my preference is to limit flexibility unless there is a clear need. As
> such, I propose the following text:
>
> “If an XPath Filtering Transform instance includes qualified nodes,  
> then
> associated namespace declarations MUST be specified through attributes
> of the <XPath> element.”
>
> If there is a concensus that namespace declarations up to and  
> including
> the <SignedInfo> element are acceptable, the wording above can be
> adjusted.
>
> Thoughts?
>
>

Received on Friday, 6 November 2009 22:20:13 UTC