New JOBSECURITY Feature

by Gail Duro
Commercial Systems Division

Overview

The JOBSECURITY command now includes a new parameter, PASSEXEMPT, in this MPE/iX 5.5 Release. PASSEXEMPT is used by users with System Manager (SM) capability to control password validation when the STREAM command is issued for a job file.


NOTE: Password validation for the STREAM command is also controlled by the HP Security Monitor, which is a separately purchasable product. If you already have the HP Security Monitor, use that to control password validation. Otherwise, you can use the JOBSECURITY ;PASSEXEMPT command, which is available on MPE/iX 5.5. Refer to the "JOBSECURITY Interaction with the HP Security Monitor" section later in this article for a comparison of the HP Security Monitor and the JOBSECURITY ;PASSEXEMPT command.

PASSEXEMPT can give users the ability to stream jobs without requiring the logon passwords. Normally, when the STREAM command is issued, users are interactively prompted for passwords or are required to embed them within the job file.

Intended Audience

This article is intended for System Managers (SM), Account Managers (AM), and general users who want to stream jobs without specifying passwords. This article provides a general overview of the enhanced JOBSECURITY command and the new PASSEXEMPT parameter.

The main sections in this article are:

Features and Benefits

When the PASSEXEMPT parameter is enabled, a set of users are exempted from the password requirement and can stream jobs without having to specify passwords. Passwords are still required for logging on to a session interactively.

Features

The PASSEXEMPT parameter provides the following features:

  • The password exemption feature for streaming job files can be granted to any user with SM, AM or a matching logon identity.

    • SM users can stream all jobs.

    • AM users can stream jobs that logon to their account.

    • A user whose logon identity matches the job's logon identity can stream a job without specifying passwords.

  • Additional users can be authorized to stream jobs without specifying passwords. When the stream file's owner/creator is the same as the job logon identity and the user has execute access to the file, they are allowed to stream the job without specifying passwords. The file owner/creator can create an access control definition (ACD) to select which users they want to grant execute access.

Benefits

The benefit to System Managers is better password management. By using PASSEXEMPT, they can limit password access while still providing the ability to stream jobs.

JOBSECURITY Operation

The JOBSECURITY command may be issued from a session, job, program, or in BREAK. Pressing the BREAK key has no effect on this command. You may execute JOBSECURITY only from the console unless distributed to users with the ALLOW command.

JOBSECURITY controls the use of the ABORTJOB, ALTJOB, BREAKJOB, and RESUMEJOB commands with the HIGH or LOW parameter, described in the "Parameter Definitions" section later on.

JOBSECURITY Interaction with the HP Security Monitor

PASSEXEMPT and the HP Monitor perform the same password verification functions. Normally, you would use one or the other, but you can use both.

Following is a comparison of the PASSEXEMPT options and the equivalent HP Monitor features (see the "Parameter Definitions" section below for descriptions of these options):


PASSEXEMPT         HP Security Monitor Feature
Option

USER Stream Privilege XACCESS Stream Authorize

If you do have the HP Security Monitor on your system, and you use the JOBSECURITY command, the output of JOBSECURITY could be impacted by the HP Security Monitor. This is because the HP Security Monitor manages its settings in its own configuration file. When you invoke the JOBSECURITY command, it checks to see if the HP Security Monitor file exists. If the HP Security Monitor file does exist, JOBSECURITY combines the settings to produce the command output, which may not be the expected output.

For example, if you set PASSEXEMPT=XACCESS, and the Stream Privilege feature of the HP Security Monitor was also set, then JOBSECURITY combines these settings as if MAX were set (which combines the USER and XACCESS options).


NOTE: If you have the HP Security Monitor, we recommend that you set all the settings either with the HP Secutiry Monitor, or with the JOBSECURITY ;PASSEXEMPT command, to be sure of the command output.

When the PASSEXEMPT parameter is issued and the interaction with the HP Security Monitor produces a different result, a warning that the HP Security Monitor is installed is issued. The resulting command output is also displayed with the warning. This is illustrated in the last example in the "Examples" section.

User Interface

The JOBSECURITY command designates what level of user may request resource and control the execution of jobs. The following information describes the parameters supported by JOBSECURITY:

Syntax

                   [            {NONE    }]
JOBSECURITY [HIGH] [;PASSEXEMPT={USER    }]
            [LOW ] [            {XACCESS }]
                   [            {MAX     }]

Parameter Definitions

HIGH
Permits only the operator logged on at the console to use job control commands. (Optional)

LOW
Allows any user to issue job control commands for their own jobs. (Optional)

The job's username and account must match that of the user. Account Managers do not need a matching username, so they may control the execution of any job in their account.

PASSEXEMPT
Controls password validation when the STREAM command is issued for a job file. SM capability is required to specify PASSEXEMPT. (Optional)

NONE
Requires that the requested passwords be specified to stream a job. If the PASSEXEMPT parameter has never been used before and the HP Security Monitor is not installed, the initial state is NONE. (Default)

When the system is rebooted with START NORECOVERY, the PASSEXEMPT parameter is initialized to NONE.

When the system is rebooted with a START RECOVERY, the last PASSEXEMPT state is preserved.

USER
Grants password exemption to users with SM, AM, or matching logon identity.

  • The System Manager can stream all jobs.

  • The Account Manager can stream all jobs that log on to their account, provided they otherwise have access to those jobs.

  • A user can stream all jobs where their logon identity matches the job's logon identity and they have access to those jobs.

The USER option is equivalent to the Stream Privilege feature in the HP Security Monitor.

XACCESS
Grants a user to stream a job without specifying a password if their logon identity matches the job's logon identity, and they have execute access to the stream file. The file owner/creator can set an access control definition(ACD) on the file to grant execute access to the specific set of users.

The XACCESS option is similar to the HP Security Monitor's Stream Authorize feature. However, the Stream Authorize feature can only be enabled if the Stream Privilege feature is already enabled. The JOBSECURITY command, however, allows the options to be set independently.

MAX
Specifies both USER and XACCESS. Otherwise, these options are mutually exclusive.

If you do not specify any options, the current job security status is displayed.

Examples

The following examples show the enhanced JOBSECURITY command and changes to the output.

     : JOBSECURITY
     JOBSECURITY IS HIGH. PASSEXEMPT IS NONE.

: JOBSECURITY LOW : JOBSECURITY JOBSECURITY IS LOW. PASSEXEMPT IS NONE.

: JOBSECURITY ;PASSEXEMPT=USER : JOBSECURITY JOBSECURITY IS LOW. PASSEXEMPT IS USER.

If USER is set and XACCESS is specified, the result is XACCESS.

     : JOBSECURITY
     JOBSECURITY IS LOW. PASSEXEMPT IS USER.

: JOBSECURITY ;PASSEXEMPT=XACCESS : JOBSECURITY JOBSECURITY IS LOW. PASSEXEMPT IS XACCESS.

If the HP Security Monitor is installed with both Stream Privilege and Stream Authorize turned on, the JOBSECURITY command displays an output warning when the OR operation produces a different result.

     :JOBSECURITY ;PASSEXEMPT=USER
     Security Monitor is installed. Passexempt is MAX. (CIWARN 3128)