WS-Security using the ASMX file in ASP.NET 3.5

Question

Basically I need to setup my ASMX file so that when I pull it up in a browser to display the WebMethod specification the Soap Header conforms to this format:

<soap:Header>
   <wsse:Security>
      <wsse:UsernameToken wsu:Id='SecurityToken-securityToken'>
         <wsse:Username>Username</wsse:Username>
         <wsse:Password>Password</wsse:Password>
         <wsu:Created>Timestamp</wsu:Created>
      </wsse:UsernameToken>
   </wsse:Security>
</soap:Header>

Back-story: I'm integrating with a client application that is already built (and owned by another company). Basically this client application already has their soap messages all set up from its past integrations with other companies. So we've opted to just build a web service using an ASMX file that matches the WSDL that they're already setup to consume.

Is it possible to get WS-Security working on an ASMX file or is ASMX too simplistic and I have to upgrade to WFC (which I really don't want to do)?

Answer 1

You can implement a SOAP / WS-Security service using classic web services. Here's a tutorial from MSDN.

All of this is easier in WCF though.

EDIT:

Pulled the wrong link. Here's the one I meant to paste (CodeProject tutorial that uses WSE 2, though WSE 3 is the latest release and I have used that exclusively pre-WCF).

Answer 2

No, legacy ASMX web services do not support WS-Security, or any of the other WS-* standards.

Since Microsoft now considers ASMX web services to be "legacy technology", you should be doing this work using WCF.

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Another answer suggests using WSE. This is even less of a solution. WSE is flat-out obsolete, and should only be used as a last resort.

Answer 3

Is it possible to get WS-Security working on an ASMX file or is ASMX too simplistic and I have to upgrade to WFC (which I really don't want to do)?

Yes, it is possible using Web Services Enhancements 3 (an add-on for Visual Studio 2005 and ASMX). See this MSDN page for a WSE-3-specific tutorial and use the usernameOverTransportSecurity assertion, noting that this is not actually secure unless the connection takes place over a protected transport (i.e. SSL).

It is, however, not recommended that you do this, and I cannot fathom why you would not "want" to "upgrade to WCF" given the choice. Please note the following very important limitations of ASMX/WSE:

• WSE is no longer a supported product. Although it still works, it no longer receives updates or even bug fixes.

• No version of WSE will successfully integrate into Visual Studio 2008, or even Visual Studio 2005 running on Windows Vista x64 or newer.

• WCF goes to a lot of trouble to provide thread-safe client operations and allow proxies to exist for long periods of time (which in turn provide significant per-operation performance benefits). WSE proxies, on the other hand, are disposable non-threadsafe objects that incur a setup time with every remote method invocation (even when using Secure Conversation). This also makes them largely unsuitable for Dependency Injection and many other widely-used patterns.

These are just some of the reasons why you shouldn't use WSE anymore. The reasons why you should use WCF on the client side are manifold, including but not limited to separation of the model and proxies, consumption of REST-based services, and better handling of collection types.

Unless you really must continue to use ASMX, please reconsider your refusal to move to WCF - unless the service does a lot of unusual things with XML serialization, it takes no more than 5 minutes to make the switch.