Embodiments described herein provide for allowing processing code of a message to attach state thereto. More specifically, as a SOAP message is processed, various states known as properties (e.g., message security, message identifier, etc.) can be attached to the message for various purposes. In other words, embodiments provide for a properties object that represents a set of processing-level annotations to a message. These properties (representing the processing state of the headers or other portions of the message) can then be used by other component or modules for further processing purposes. Typically, these properties can then be removed (or sustained if desired) prior to transporting the SOAP message on the wire.