XML namespace
WS-Security extensions
Authentication and signing headers for SOAP — the UsernameToken and BinarySecurityToken that enterprise services expect in the envelope header.
xmlns:wsse="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-secext-1.0.xsd"WS-Security puts credentials in the SOAP header rather than in the transport. <wsse:Security> holds a <wsse:UsernameToken> for password authentication, or a <wsse:BinarySecurityToken> carrying a certificate, alongside the XML Signature elements that sign the body.
The URI is the single most awkward namespace identifier in common use: it ends in .xsd, is nearly a hundred characters long, and exists in several near-identical variants across the WS-* family. Copy it exactly — one that differs by a year or a version number is a different namespace and a rejected message.
It remains current in practice because the banking, insurance and government integrations that adopted SOAP have not moved off it.
- URI
http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-secext-1.0.xsd- Prefix
wsse- Elements
SecurityUsernameTokenUsernamePasswordBinarySecurityTokenNonce
Specification: OASIS WS-Security 1.1
Formats that use it
SOAP envelope
<Envelope>The message envelope for SOAP web services — still the backbone of banking, logistics and telecom, with its version carried by the namespace URI.
WSDL
<definitions>The machine-readable contract for a SOAP service: operations, messages, bindings and endpoints, with an inline XSD describing its own types.
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