Aleksey Sanin has released version 0.0.9 of the XML Security Library (xmlsec), an open-source libxml- and OpenSSL-based implementation of the joint IETF/W3C XML Signature (dsig) and W3C XML Encryption (xenc) specifications. This release fixes some major bugs found in the 0.0.8 release.

Along with fixing all bugs found in the 0.0.8 release, this xmlsec release provides all the features added in xmlsec 0.0.8, including:

XML Signature and XML Encryption are important as a means for digitally signing and encrypting/decrypting documents: contracts, documents used in electronic commerce, or messages of any kind whose internal integrity and authenticy it might be important to verify.

It's especially important to note that XML Signature and XML Encryption provide a means for digitally signing and encrypting/decrypting portions of documents as well as entire documents. This "granular" security enables different parts of a document to be signed/encrypted with different keys. So, for example, a document can be distributed to multiple recipients but signed and encrypted in such a way that the recipients are able to decrypt and view only specific parts of the document.

For its support for Canonical XML and Exclusive Canonical XML, which both XML Signature and XML Encryption depend on, the XML Security Library relies on libxml.

Along with providing the actual XML Security library files (C libraries) designed to be used by other applications, the distribution also includes a command-line tool, xmlsec, for signing and encrypting documents.

The XML Security Library download page provides links to the source distribution as well as to Red Hat RPMs (xmlsec and xmlsec-devel), Windows binaries, and unofficial Debian packages.