The Netscape technology known as form signing addresses the need for persistent authentication of financial transactions. Form signing allows a user to associate a digital signature with web-based data generated as the result of a transaction, such as a purchase order or other financial document. The private key associated with either a client SSL certificate or an S/MIME certificate may be used for this purpose.

When a user clicks the Submit button on a web-based form that supports form signing, a dialog box appears that displays the exact text to be signed. The form designer can either specify the certificate that should be used or allow the user to select a certificate from among the client SSL and S/MIME certificates that are installed in Communicator. When the user clicks OK, the text is signed, and both the text and the digital signature are submitted to the server. The server can then use a Netscape utility called the Signature Verification Tool to validate the digital signature.

The Netscape Crypto team is thinking about restoring the 4.X form

signing functionality in the next release. We would like to hear from

the crypto community, particularly from users of the 4.x

crypto.signText() functionality:

- Are you happy with the functionality?

- If form signing was re-introduced, would signText() backward

compatibility be important?

- What other form signing features should the Netscape support?

Implemented in

JavaScript 1.2

Description

The crypto object is only available as a property of window; it provides access to methods which support Navigator's encryption features.