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6.1.2 Digital Signatures

FHIR Infrastructure Security Work Group

Maturity Level : N/A 1

Standards Status : Trial Use

This specification recommends the use of W3C Digital Signatures or JSON Digital Signatures for digital signatures. Resources can be signed using the Provenance resource to carry a detached digital signature . The Signature datatype is available to support various signature types including non-repudiation purposes. Further details on creation and validation of Signatures are defined.

• The Signature SHOULD conform to XAdES-X-L for support of Long Term signatures . The XAdES-X-L specification adds the timestamp of the signing, inclusion of the signing certificate, and statement of revocation.
• The JSON Digital-Signature SHOULD conform to JAdES for support of Long Term signatures.

In addition, documents may be signed using an enveloped signature. A specification for enveloped signature is profiled in the IHE DSG profile .

Neither of these definitions prohibits policies that accept the use of other ways of using digital signatures or scanned wet signatures.

Trial-Use Note: Note to Implementers: The use of signatures with RESTful interfaces is a poorly understood area, and we would welcome reports of implementation experience. See discussion on use of Digital Signature in FHIR

Feedback is welcome here .