SECURITY MANAGEMENT FOR NETWORK FUNCTION MESSAGING IN A COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

In a communication system wherein a first security edge protection proxy (SEPP) element of a first network is operatively coupled to a second SEPP element of a second network, a method includes receiving, at the first SEPP element, a first message from a first network function in the first network addressed to a second network function in the second network, the first message comprising one of a request and a response line comprising a uniform resource identifier (URI) having a plurality of elements. The method also includes forming, at the first SEPP, a second message comprising encrypted and integrity protected portions, the encrypted portion comprising an encryption of at least a subset of the plurality of elements of the URI, the integrity protected portion comprising a structured representation of the URI wherein instances of elements in the subset are replaced with references to the encrypted portion.