Portal, Express Beta Version 6.1 Operating systems: i5/OS, Linux,Windows

Masking passwords in External Security Manager properties files

WebSphere Application Server has an encoding mechanism to mask the passwords and remove all comments from the production versions of properties files.

• Configuring IBM^® Tivoli^® Access Manager for e-business to perform authorization
• Configuring the Credential Vault adapter for Tivoli Access Manager
• Configuring Computer Associates eTrust SiteMinder to perform authorization

1. Complete all edits to the two Services.
2. Save your changes.
3. Run the appropriate task from the wp_profile_root/bin directory to encode the password for a specific parameter within your properties file:

   Option	Description
   Windows	PropFilePasswordEncoder.bat filename param_name
   Linux	./PropFilePasswordEncoder.sh filename param_name

   where filename is the name of the target properties file for password encoding and param_name is the name of the specific property to be encoded. If no property name is specified, all properties in the file will be encoded. The following parameters are likely to contain secure information and should be encoded:

   • ExternalAccessControl.pdpw (policy director password)
   • ExternalAccessControl.password
   • ExternalAccessControl.Agentsecret
   • pdpw
4. Perform the following steps to change masked passwords:

   1. Use the WebSphere Application Server encoding mechanism to enter the new password in clear text.
   2. Run the WebSphere Application Server encoding batch file on the new production file. The backup copy still exists with no password but with the comments preserved.