Secure Browser-Based Access to Web Services

Access to Web services via Web front-ends provides all the advantages related to browser-based thin clients and is therefore a common setting. However, providing end-to-end security between Web browsers and Web services is currently not feasible due to the inadequate support for Web service security in Web browsers. Moreover, the current SOAP APIs offered by the major browsers are incompatible with one another making the task of providing a uniform solution to address this problem difficult. This paper describes a method by which the Web service communication between a Web browser and a Web service is protected end-to-end using Web service security thereby providing a means to overcome this limitation.