diff --git a/lib/signed-xml.js b/lib/signed-xml.js
index 18e3d369..57b3fad2 100644
--- a/lib/signed-xml.js
+++ b/lib/signed-xml.js
@@ -295,12 +295,34 @@ SignedXml.prototype.validateReferences = function(doc) {
                         ref.uri + " but could not find such element in the xml")
       return false
     }
-    var canonXml = this.getCanonXml(ref.transforms, elem[0], { inclusiveNamespacesPrefixList: ref.inclusiveNamespacesPrefixList });        
 
-    var hash = this.findHashAlgorithm(ref.digestAlgorithm)    
-    var digest = hash.getHash(canonXml)    
+    var canonXml = this.getCanonXml(ref.transforms, elem[0], { inclusiveNamespacesPrefixList: ref.inclusiveNamespacesPrefixList });
+    var hash = this.findHashAlgorithm(ref.digestAlgorithm);
+    var digest = hash.getHash(canonXml);
     
-    if (digest!=ref.digestValue) {      
+    if (digest!=ref.digestValue) {
+      if (ref.inclusiveNamespacesPrefixList) {
+        // fallback: apply InclusiveNamespaces workaround (https://github.com/yaronn/xml-crypto/issues/72)
+        var prefixList = ref.inclusiveNamespacesPrefixList instanceof Array ? ref.inclusiveNamespacesPrefixList : ref.inclusiveNamespacesPrefixList.split(' ');
+        var supported_definitions = {
+          'xs': 'http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema',
+          'xsi': 'http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance',
+          'saml': 'urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:assertion'
+        }
+
+        prefixList.forEach(function (prefix) {
+          if (supported_definitions[prefix]) {
+            elem[0].setAttributeNS('http://www.w3.org/2000/xmlns/', 'xmlns:' + prefix, supported_definitions[prefix]);
+          }
+        });
+
+        canonXml = this.getCanonXml(ref.transforms, elem[0], { inclusiveNamespacesPrefixList: ref.inclusiveNamespacesPrefixList });
+        digest = hash.getHash(canonXml);
+        if (digest === ref.digestValue) {
+          return true;
+        }
+      }
+
       this.validationErrors.push("invalid signature: for uri " + ref.uri +
                                 " calculated digest is "  + digest +
                                 " but the xml to validate supplies digest " + ref.digestValue + ". XML: [[" + this.signedXml + "]]. Cannon XML: [[" + canonXml + "]]");
diff --git a/lib/utils.js b/lib/utils.js
index da8d2d3c..265ae6fa 100644
--- a/lib/utils.js
+++ b/lib/utils.js
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ function findFirst(doc, xpath) {
 }
 
 function findChilds(node, localName, namespace) {
+  node = node.documentElement || node;
   var res = []
   for (var i = 0; i<node.childNodes.length; i++) {
     var child = node.childNodes[i]