FaultContractAttribute.ProtectionLevel Property

Definition

Namespace:

System.ServiceModel

Assembly:

System.ServiceModel.dll

Specifies the level of protection the SOAP fault requires from the binding.

public:
 property System::Net::Security::ProtectionLevel ProtectionLevel { System::Net::Security::ProtectionLevel get(); void set(System::Net::Security::ProtectionLevel value); };

public System.Net.Security.ProtectionLevel ProtectionLevel { get; set; }

member this.ProtectionLevel : System.Net.Security.ProtectionLevel with get, set

Public Property ProtectionLevel As ProtectionLevel

Property Value

ProtectionLevel

One of the ProtectionLevel values. The default is None.

Remarks

Use the FaultDescription.ProtectionLevel property to specify the degree to which the binding must encrypt, sign, or both when sending the SOAP fault. It is strongly recommended that an operation's fault explicitly decide the security protection level requirements on the contract. The default protection level is ProtectionLevel.None, meaning that the SOAP fault message you are defining does not require encryption or a digital signature (although your binding may provide this support if it is configured to do so). If a fault message carries information that is sensitive or can lead to security problems, it is strongly recommended that the ProtectionLevel property be set to ProtectionLevel.EncryptAndSign. For more about security issues, see Understanding Protection Level.

The protection behavior at runtime is the combination of the protection-level properties that have a hierarchical structure. Setting the outermost value establishes the default setting for all narrower scopes unless a different value for a narrower scope is explicitly set. In this case, the outer value remains the default for all narrower scopes with the exception of that specifically set.

For example, if ServiceContractAttribute.ProtectionLevel is set to ProtectionLevel.EncryptAndSign and no other narrower scopes have protection level settings, all messages in an operation contract are encrypted and signed, including fault messages. If, however, one of those operations has the OperationContractAttribute set to ProtectionLevel.Sign, then the messages for that operation are signed but all other messages in the contract are encrypted and signed, including fault messages.

The scopes at which these values are set are:

ServiceContractAttribute.ProtectionLevel

OperationContractAttribute.ProtectionLevel

FaultContractAttribute.ProtectionLevel

MessageContractAttribute.ProtectionLevel

The MessageContractMemberAttribute.ProtectionLevel property on System.ServiceModel.MessageHeaderAttribute.

The MessageContractMemberAttribute.ProtectionLevel property on System.ServiceModel.MessageBodyMemberAttribute.

When there is no protection level explicitly specified on the contract and the underlying binding supports security (whether at the transport or message level), the effective protection level for the whole contract is ProtectionLevel.EncryptAndSign. If the binding does not support security (such as BasicHttpBinding), the effective System.Net.Security.ProtectionLevel is ProtectionLevel.None for the whole contract. The result is that depending upon the endpoint binding, clients can require different message or transport level security protection even when the contract specifies ProtectionLevel.None.