Administrative roles and naming service authorization

Administrative roles and naming service authorization

WebSphere Application Server extends the Java EE security role-based access control to protect the product administrative and naming subsystems.

Administrative roles

A number of administrative roles are defined to provide the degrees of authority that are needed to perform certain WebSphere Application Server administrative functions from either the console or the system management scripting interface called wsadmin. The authorization policy is only enforced when administrative security is enabled. The following table describes the administrative roles:

the console and wsadmin.
This table lists administrative roles that are available through the console and wsadmin.
Role Description
Monitor An individual or group that uses the monitor role has the least amount of privileges. A monitor can complete the following tasks:

View the WAS configuration.

View the current state of the Application Server.

Configurator An individual or group that uses the configurator role has the monitor privilege plus the ability to change the WAS configuration. The configurator can perform all the day-to-day configuration tasks. For example, a configurator can complete the following tasks:

Create a resource.

Map an application server.

Install and uninstall an application.

Deploy an application.

Assign users and groups-to-role mapping for applications.

Set up Java 2 security permissions for applications.

Customize the CSIv2 (CSIv2), Secure Authentication Service (SAS), and SSL configurations.
SAS supported only between Version 6.0.x and previous version servers that have been federated in a Version 6.1 cell.

Operator An individual or group that uses the operator role has monitor privileges plus ability to change the runtime state. For example, an operator can complete the following tasks:

Stop and start the server.

Monitor the server status in the console.

Administrator An individual or group that uses the administrator role has the operator and configurator privileges plus additional privileges that are granted solely to the administrator role. For example, an administrator can complete the following tasks:

Modify the server user ID and password.

Configure authentication and authorization mechanisms.

Enable or disable administrative security.
In previous releases of WAS, the Enable administrative security option is known as the Enable global security option.

Enforce Java 2 security using the Use Java 2 security to restrict application access to local resources option.

Change the LTPA password and generate keys.

Create, update, or delete users in the federated repositories configuration.

Create, update, or delete groups in the federated repositories configuration.

An administrator cannot map users and groups to the administrator roles.
For information on how to assign federated repository management rights to users who are not assigned the WAS Administrator role, see the topic, Mapping users and groups to roles for assigning federated repository management rights in the topic, Providing security.
Adminsecuritymanager Only users who are granted this role can map users to administrative roles. Also, when fine-grained administrative security is used, only users who are granted this role can manage authorization groups. See Administrative roles for more information.
Deployer Users who are granted this role can perform both configuration actions and runtime operations on applications.
Auditor Users granted this role can view and modify the configuration settings for the security auditing subsystem. For example, a user with the auditor role can complete the following tasks:

Enable and disable the security auditing subsystem.

Select the event factory implementation to be used with the event factory plug-in point.

Select and configure the service provide, or emitter. or both to be used with the service provider plug-in point.

Set the audit policy that describes the behavior of the application server in the event of an error with the security auditing subsystem.

Define which security events are to be audited.
The auditor role includes the monitor role. This allows the auditor to view but not change the rest of the security configuration.

administrative role that is available through the console.
This table lists an additional administrative role that is available through the console.
Role Description
iscadmins This role is only available for console users and not for wsadmin users. Users who are granted this role have administrator privileges for managing users and groups in the federated respositories. For example, a user of the iscadmins role can complete the following tasks:

Create, update, or delete users in the federated repositories configuration.

Create, update, or delete groups in the federated repositories configuration.

available through the console.
Role Description
Deployer This role is only available for wsadmin users and not for console users. Users who are granted this role can perform both configuration actions and run-time operations on applications.

When administrative security is enabled, the administrative subsystem role-based access control is enforced. The administrative subsystem includes the security server, the console, the wsadmin scripting tool, and all the JMX MBeans. When administrative security is enabled, both the console and the administrative scripting tool require users to provide the required authentication data. Moreover, the console is designed so the control functions that display on the pages are adjusted, according to the security roles that a user has. For example, a user who has only the monitor role can see only the non-sensitive configuration data. A user with the operator role can change the system state.
When you are changing registries (for example, from a federated repository to LDAP), make sure you remove the information that pertains to the previously configured registry for console users and console groups.
(zos) WebSphere Application Server for z/OS security customization dialogs prime the administrative subsystem to accept the MVS™ identities of all the started WebSphere Application Server system tasks (for example, controllers, servants, and so on) as WebSphere administrators and the configured administrator identity. If a federated repository, a stand-alone LDAP registry, or a stand-alone custom registry is specified, the configured server identities are used for work that is run by the system instead of for work that is run by the started task identities.
(zos) The value of the com.ibm.security.SAF.authorization setting controls whether SAF EJBROLE profiles or the console settings are used to control access to administration profiles rather than the console users. When property, com.ibm.security.SAF.authorization, is set to true, SAF authorization is selected and SAF EJBROLE profiles are used to control access to administrative roles.
With System Authorization Facility (SAF) authorization any values in the console users and console groups are ignored.
(zos) If WAS authorization rather than SAF authorization is used to restrict access to Java EE roles, WebSphere Application Server for z/OS automatically maps the server identity specified when enabling administrative security to the administrative role. When administrative security is enabled, WebSphere Application Servers for z/OS runs under the server identity defined under the active user registry configuration. Although it is not shown on the console and in other tools, a special Server subject is mapped to the administrator role.

The WebSphere Application Server run-time code, which runs under the server identity, requires authorization for some run-time operations. We can either explicitly enter the server identity and password or the identity can be auto-generated. In the former case, the server identity is a valid user in the registry. In the latter case, use the internalServerId feature to generate a server identity automatically. The configuration panel for each user registry enables you to make this choice. For an internalServerId, enter the administrator ID or adminID in the Primary administrative user name field. This adminID is a valid user in the registry, and the password for this ID is not required and is not saved in the configuration. See "Internal server ID" in the section below.

If no explicit users or groups are assigned to administrative roles, we can log into the console or to the wsadmin scripting tool using the server identity or adminID when using the internalServerId feature to perform administrative operations and to assign other users or groups to administrative roles. This is possible because the server identity (or the adminID) is assigned automatically to the adminsecuritymanager role. Only the users/groups associated with the adminsecuritymanager can manage the users/groups to all administrative roles. Once you login using the server identity (or adminID), the administrative security policy allows us to perform the operations such as:

Change server ID and server password

Enable or disable WebSphere Application Server administrative security

Enforce Java 2 security using the Use Java 2 security to restrict application access to local resources option.

Change the LTPA password or generate keys

A special configuration is not required to enable the server identity as specified when enabling administrative security for administrative use because the server identity is automatically mapped to the administrator role. We can add or remove users and groups to or from the administrative roles from the WAS console. However, you must restart the server for the changes to take effect. A best practice is to map a group, rather than specific users, to administrative roles because this approach is more flexible and easier to administer. By mapping a group to an administrative role, adding or removing users to or from the group occurs outside of WAS and does not require a server restart for the change to take effect.

When administrative security is enabled, WebSphere Application Servers run under the server identity defined under the active user registry configuration. Although it is not shown on the console and in other tools, a special Server subject is mapped to the administrator role. The WAS runtime code, which runs under the server identity, requires authorization to runtime operations. If no other user is assigned administrative roles, we can log into the console or to the wsadmin scripting tool using the server identity to perform administrative operations and to assign other users or groups to administrative roles. Because the server identity is assigned to the administrative role by default, the administrative security policy requires the administrative role to perform the following operations:

Change server ID and server password

Enable or disable WebSphere Application Serveradministrative security

Enforce Java 2 security using the Use Java 2 security to restrict application access to local resources option.

Change the LTPA password or generate keys

Assign users and groups to administrative roles

Version 6.1 release of WAS and subsequent releases require the following:

An administrative user, distinguished from the server user identity, to improve auditability of administrative actions. The user name specifies a user with administrative privileges defined in the local operating system.

Distinguish the server identity from the administrative user identity to improve auditability. The server user identity is used for authenticating server-to-server communications.

The internal server ID enables the automatic generation of the user identity for server-to-server authentication. Automatic generation of the server identity supports improved auditability for cells only for Version 6.1 or later nodes. In the Version 6.1 release of WAS, we can save the internally-generated server ID because the Security WebSphere Common Configuration Model (WCCM) model contains a new tag, internalServerId. You do not need to specify a server user ID and a password during security configuration except in a mixed-cell environment. An internally-generated server ID adds a further level of protection to the server environment because the server password is not exposed as it is in releases prior to Version 6.1. However, to maintain backwards compatibility, specify the server user ID if you use earlier versions of WAS.
When enabling security, we can assign one or more users and groups to naming roles. For more information, see Assigning users to naming roles. However, before assigning users to naming roles, configure the active user registry. User and group validation depends on the active user registry. For more information, see Configuring user registries.

Ability to map a special-subject to the administrative roles. A special-subject is a generalization of a particular class of users. The AllAuthenticated or the AllAuhenticatedInTrustedRealms (when cross realm is involved) special subjects mean that the access check of the administrative role ensures that the user making the request is at least authenticated. The Everyone special subject means that anyone, authenticated or not, can perform the action as if security is not enabled.

Naming service authorization

CosNaming security offers increased granularity of security control over CosNaming functions. CosNaming functions are available on CosNaming servers such as the WAS. These functions affect the content of the WAS name space. Generally, we have two ways in which client programs result in CosNaming calls. The first is through the JNDI call. The second is with common object request broker architecture (CORBA) clients invoking CosNaming methods directly.
Four security roles are introduced :

CosNamingRead

CosNamingWrite

CosNamingCreate

CosNamingDelete

The roles have authority levels from low to high:

CosNamingRead

We can query the WAS name space, using, for example, the JNDI lookup method. The special-subject, Everyone, is the default policy for this role.

CosNamingWrite

We can perform write operations such as JNDI bind, rebind, or unbind, and CosNamingRead operations. As a default policy, Subjects are not assigned this role.

CosNamingCreate

We can create new objects in the name space through such operations as JNDI createSubcontext and CosNamingWrite operations. As a default policy, Subjects are not assigned this role.

CosNamingDelete

We can destroy objects in the name space, for example using the JNDI destroySubcontext method and CosNamingCreate operations. As a default policy, Subjects are not assigned this role.

(zos) When you configure a local operating system registry with WebSphere Application Server for z/OS, factors require some additional considerations. Refer to Select a registry or repository and Configure local operating system registries for more information. If we specify federated repositories, a stand-alone LDAP registry, or a stand-alone custom registry, remove the local operating system customization by deleting the pre-configured WebSphere Application Server configuration group and administrator identity from the console group and delete the console users.
A Server special-subject is assigned to all of the four CosNaming roles by default. The Server special-subject provides a WAS process, which runs under the server identity, to access all the CosNaming operations. The Server special-subject does not display and cannot be modified through the console or other administrative tools.
Special configuration is not required to enable the server identity as specified when enabling administrative security for administrative use because the server identity is automatically mapped to the administrator role.
Users, groups, or the special subjects AllAuthenticated and Everyone can be added or removed to or from the naming roles from the WAS console at any time. However, a server restart is required for the changes to take effect.
(zos) Configuration is not required to enable the server identity (as specified) when enablingadministrative security for administrative use because the server identity is automatically mapped to the administrator role. Users, groups, or the special subjects AllAuthenticated and Everyone can be added or removed to or from the naming roles from the WAS console at any time. However, a server restart is required for the changes to take effect. When SAF Authorization is chosen, a server restart is not needed to authorize additional users or groups.
A best practice is to map groups or one of the special-subjects, rather than specific users, to naming roles because it is more flexible and easier to administer in the long run. By mapping a group to a naming role, adding or removing users to or from the group occurs outside of WAS and does not require a server restart for the change to take effect.
The CosNaming authorization policy is only enforced when administrative security is enabled. When administrative security is enabled, attempts to do CosNaming operations without the proper role assignment result in an org.omg.CORBA.NO_PERMISSION exception from the CosNaming server.
Each CosNaming function is assigned to only one role. Therefore, users who are assigned the CosNamingCreate role cannot query the name space unless they have also been assigned CosNamingRead. And in most cases a creator needs to be assigned three roles: CosNamingRead, CosNamingWrite, and CosNamingCreate. The CosNamingRead and CosNamingWrite roles assignment for the creator example are included in the CosNamingCreate role. In most of the cases, WebSphere Application Server administrators do not have to change the roles assignment for every user or group when they move to this release from a previous one.
Although the ability exists to greatly restrict access to the name space by changing the default policy, unexpected org.omg.CORBA.NO_PERMISSION exceptions can occur at runtime. Typically, Java EE applications access the name space and the identity they use is that of the user that authenticated to WebSphere Application Server when accessing the Java EE application. Unless the Java EE application provider clearly communicates the expected naming roles, use caution when changing the default naming authorization policy.

Subtopics

Administrative roles for business level applications
The J2EE role-based authorization concept is extended to protect the WAS administrative subsystem. This protection applies to those administrative roles associated with business level applications.

Related concepts

Authorization technology

Related tasks

Assigning users to naming roles
Select a registry or repository
(zos) Controlling access to console users when using a Local OS Registry

Role	Description
Monitor	An individual or group that uses the monitor role has the least amount of privileges. A monitor can complete the following tasks: View the WAS configuration. View the current state of the Application Server.
Configurator	An individual or group that uses the configurator role has the monitor privilege plus the ability to change the WAS configuration. The configurator can perform all the day-to-day configuration tasks. For example, a configurator can complete the following tasks: Create a resource. Map an application server. Install and uninstall an application. Deploy an application. Assign users and groups-to-role mapping for applications. Set up Java 2 security permissions for applications. Customize the CSIv2 (CSIv2), Secure Authentication Service (SAS), and SSL configurations. SAS supported only between Version 6.0.x and previous version servers that have been federated in a Version 6.1 cell.
Operator	An individual or group that uses the operator role has monitor privileges plus ability to change the runtime state. For example, an operator can complete the following tasks: Stop and start the server. Monitor the server status in the console.
Administrator	An individual or group that uses the administrator role has the operator and configurator privileges plus additional privileges that are granted solely to the administrator role. For example, an administrator can complete the following tasks: Modify the server user ID and password. Configure authentication and authorization mechanisms. Enable or disable administrative security. In previous releases of WAS, the Enable administrative security option is known as the Enable global security option. Enforce Java 2 security using the Use Java 2 security to restrict application access to local resources option. Change the LTPA password and generate keys. Create, update, or delete users in the federated repositories configuration. Create, update, or delete groups in the federated repositories configuration. An administrator cannot map users and groups to the administrator roles. For information on how to assign federated repository management rights to users who are not assigned the WAS Administrator role, see the topic, Mapping users and groups to roles for assigning federated repository management rights in the topic, Providing security.
Adminsecuritymanager	Only users who are granted this role can map users to administrative roles. Also, when fine-grained administrative security is used, only users who are granted this role can manage authorization groups. See Administrative roles for more information.
Deployer	Users who are granted this role can perform both configuration actions and runtime operations on applications.
Auditor	Users granted this role can view and modify the configuration settings for the security auditing subsystem. For example, a user with the auditor role can complete the following tasks: Enable and disable the security auditing subsystem. Select the event factory implementation to be used with the event factory plug-in point. Select and configure the service provide, or emitter. or both to be used with the service provider plug-in point. Set the audit policy that describes the behavior of the application server in the event of an error with the security auditing subsystem. Define which security events are to be audited. The auditor role includes the monitor role. This allows the auditor to view but not change the rest of the security configuration.