Working Draft

Date: Oct. 14, 1999
Link: http://www.w3.org/TR/xmldsig-requirements
Source Author or Organization: IETF/W3C

Due to the required expertise in both XML and Internet cryptographic security that this subject matter required, the IETF and the W3C decided to combine their efforts and work together on the XML-Digital Signature Working Group charter. This Working Draft is a Requirements document for what must be included in the final XML-Signature Specification.

In a nutshell, the XML Signature syntax will express the relationships between cryptographic signatures and web resources. (A"web resource" in this case is "basically anything that can be referenced by a URI".)

The finished signature standard will also include the procedures for processing and verifying XML-Signatures, and although the specification will not specify any trust semantics, it will provide a mechanism which enables these semantics to be arbitrarily extended.