Abstract: Access control is one of the key technologies in secure and reliable Web services composition valucadded application. This paper briefly reviewed the state of the research for access control in Web services composition environment. We firstly discussed the challenges to Web services secure composition. Subsequently we analysed the security problems concerning Web services composition from a hierarchical perspective. Then, we discussed the research progress on the key access control technology from three respects of Web services composition access control architecture,atomic security policy consistent coordination and business process authorization. Finally, the conclusion was given andthe problems were pointed out,which should be resolved in future research.

Key words: Web services composition, Access control, Architecture, Security policy, Business process