WCF (Param encryption and .NET 1.1 clients)

Question

Hi all,

I'm starting in the WCF world and would like to ask your opinion on something. I need to implement a service exposing one method that receives a couple of parameters. I want the parameters, submitted from a form in the client to the service, to be sent encrypted in the SOAP message.

The service needs to be accessed from .NET 3.5 clients and also 1.1. It is not possible to install the WCF service via a windows service, it needs to be deployed as a IIS app.

My questions: - How can the WCF service assure encryption of the input parameters? A certificate in the client or are there any alternatives? - Is there any problem consuming the WCF service via 1.1 apps, or even other non .NET clients? - Do you think this scenario is implementable with WCF?

Thank you in advance

Answer 1

There is no way for a .NET 1.1 application to call a WCF service unless that service is exposed through basicHttpBinding. That binding only permits the use of SSL for encryption.

Answer 2

SSL on the web service host.

Answer 3

.NET 1.1 doesn't support automatic encryption, or WS-Security. You can encrypt/decrypt the parameters manually, though.