Security services allow Open Server applications to use third-party distributed security to authenticate users and protect data as it is transmitted between clients and servers.
Check your Open Client and Open Server Configuration Guide for the distributed security service providers that are available on your platform.
The security services available from a particular provider are referred to as a security mechanism. An Open Server application can support multiple security mechanisms, depending on availability. Open Server applications select security mechanisms on a per client-server dialog basis (based on client connection requests).
You can use Open Server’s security services to:
Access credentials that are established on a system.
Credentials are the data that is transferred between peers (clients and servers) to establish the identity of a peer.
Communicate the requested security mechanism during dialog establishment.
Establish a security session with a remote client or server.
The security services are negotiated during security session establishment. Security sessions map directly to client dialogs.
Communicate opaque tokens over a dialog to allow a security mechanism to communicate with its peer component. These tokens are sent during session establishment, and, if required, can be used for per-packet security services.
A token is a bit string generated by the security mechanism for security information exchange between peers. A token may be cryptographically protected.
Bind channel identification information to a security session.
Digitally sign tokens to assure the origin of tokens.
