The World Wide Web Consortium has announced the launch of its XML Key Management Activity, tasked with the development of "an XML application/protocol that allows a simple client to obtain key information (values, certificates, management or trust data) from a web service. Based upon the XML Key Management Specification (XKMS), the Activity is chartered to produce a companion Recommendation for the IETF/W3C XML Encryption and XML Digital Signature Activities. An initial working draft XML Key Management Specification (XKMS) defines "protocols for distributing and registering public keys, suitable for use in conjunction with the proposed standard for XML Signature (XML-SIG) developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and an anticipated companion standard for XML encryption. The XML Key Management Specification (XKMS) comprises two parts: (1) the XML Key Information Service Specification (X-KISS) and (2) the XML Key Registration Service Specification (X-KRSS)." A recently-updated XML Key Management Requirements document presents "the design principles, scope and requirements for the XML Key Management specifications; it includes requirements as they relate to the key management syntax, processing, security and external requirements and coordination."

XML Key Management Activity liaisons: "The XML Key Management Working Group will liaise with at least the following groups outside W3C: (1) IETF: The Working Group will cooperate closely with the IETF on the use of XML Key Management to interface to a PKIX conformant PKI; in addition the Working Group will cooperate closely with IETF Working Groups that may develop profiles for making use of the XML Key Management Recommendation (e.g. S/MIME, TLS, IPSEC, DNSSEC) (2) IETF-SACRED: The Working group will liaise with the IETF SACRED group with the objective of harmonizing the SACRED protocol layer with the X-KRSS roaming operation. (3) ebXML - TRP; (4) OASIS SAML TC (Security Assertions Markup Language Specification); (5) WAP Forum: The Working group will liaise via cross-participation with the WAP Forum to develop a XML Key Management profile for WAP devices. (6) European Telecommunications Standards Institute: The Working group will consider the impact of the ETSI XML Advanced Electronic Signatures proposal." [from the Charter]

From the working draft XML Key Management Specification (XKMS) executive summary: "This document specifies protocols for distributing and registering public keys, suitable for use in conjunction with the proposed standard for XML Signature developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and an anticipated companion standard for XML encryption. The XML Key Management Specification (XKMS) comprises two parts -- the XML Key Information Service Specification (X-KISS) and the XML Key Registration Service Specification (X-KRSS). The X-KISS specification defines a protocol for a Trust service that resolves public key information contained in XML-SIGelements. The X-KISS protocol allows a client of such a service to delegate part or all of the tasks required to process <ds:KeyInfo> elements. A key objective of the protocol design is to minimize the complexity of application implementations by allowing them to become clients and thereby to be shielded from the complexity and syntax of the underlying PKI used to establish trust relationships. The underlying PKI may be based upon a different specification such as X.509/PKIX, SPKI or PGP. The X-KRSS specification defines a protocol for a web service that accepts registration of public key information. Once registered, the public key may be used in conjunction with other web services including X-KISS. Both protocols are defined in terms of structures expressed in the XML Schema Language, protocols employing the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) version 1.1 and relationships among messages defined by the Web Services Definition Language v1.0 (WSDL). Expression of XKMS in other compatible object encoding schemes is also possible..."