encrypt/decrypt webservice/WCF message request

Question

i have a service method which return users based on some conditions which is serialized and passed as string.

public user GetUser(string RequestXML){ }

The problem is that the "RequestXMl" must be encrypted as well as the response object using AES256 on the both the server and client application.

Is this really necessary to do this or WCF provides enough security to make a WCF service secure. ? or how to achieve this

Note :- i could not find any resources on the internet for this question may be because this a foolish idea or it has never been attempted.

Answer 1

You should be ideally passing the parameters in object format and the same for the return parameters.

These method parameters are by default serialised in WCF and applying the message security should fix them up as you require by encrypting.

You may also try to use the transport security system, SSL in case of more sensitive information.