HP 3000 Manuals HP 3000 Manuals
Security Issues
Your users require easy access to their data sources. As the primary
DBA, you are responsible for maintaining and safeguarding those data
sources. Properly set up, Access Server satisfies both needs.
If you are concerned about the security of your data, be assured that the
security provided by MPE or IMAGE remains intact. In fact, Access Server
provides several additional kinds of security, which are summarized
below.
You Decide Who Sees What
There are three ways in which you control who can see what part of your
data:
* The Administrator Utility gives you complete control over the
Access Server environment. You define the tables of data your
users can see, you define your users, and you define which users
can see which tables and items. Any database view you create
using passwords and user classes in IMAGE can be duplicated in
Access Server using access groups, table security, and item
security.
* If you're defining security-sensitive data, you use a simple
command (DISABLEAC) to make Access Server unavailable to users
until you've finished adding table and item security.
* You decide whether to allow unconfigured users into Access Server.
The data dictionary, at installation, has the user DEFAULT-USER
defined as a member of the access group DEFAULT-GROUP.
* If you choose to retain this definition, any MPE user can use
Access Server (by running Access PC) or the Host Batch Facility to
look at public tables (tables with no security defined for them)
merely by establishing a session on the host HP 3000 and choosing
Remote Tables (no user and password are required).
* If you delete this definition, only Access Server users you have
configured will be allowed to access data through Access Server.
You Can Secure the Administrator Utility
The Administrator Utility, upon installation of Access Server, is
unsecured. However, there are four ways in which you can secure it.
* You can give the primary or a secondary DBA a password (using the
Change User screen). This password will prevent unauthorized
users from running the utility. You should change these passwords
on a regular basis.
* You can put a lockword on the Administrator Utility program file,
ADMIN.PPC.SYS. Anyone trying to run the utility thereafter will
need to supply the lockword before the request to run will be
granted.
* You can use the Password Options screen in the Administrator
Utility to minimize the display of password fields, both on
Configuration screens (and printouts) and in reports generated
from the Report and Synchronization screens. When first
installed, the password options are set so that all passwords are
displayed on the screens and their corresponding printouts,
but suppressed in reports generated from the Report and
Synchronization screens.
* You should change the password for the user OPERATOR on a regular
basis. (The user OPERATOR is a predefined user who can run the
Administrator Utility only to make Access Server available or
nonavailable to users.)
As an extra measure of security, all database passwords, user passwords,
account passwords, and file lockwords included in the Information Access
data dictionary are encrypted. If an unauthorized person were to
discover the database password for HDPDIC or HDPENV (the two databases
that constitute the data dictionary), such a person running QUERY against
these databases would find useless information in the password fields.
Your databases and files are secure against easy intrusion.
NOTE The database passwords for HDPDIC and HDPENV can also be changedas
often as you like. When you change these passwords, however,you
need to let Access Server know about the change. The procedure to
follow is outlined in Appendix A, "Data Dictionary Information."
Your PC Users' Saved Data is Safe
PC users can save their tables on the host HP 3000 in several different
ways: as DIF files (for use in Deluxe VisiCalc/3000), as SD files (for
use in various graphics products), as formatted ASCII files (for use in
an editor), as saved tables (for later manipulation in Access PC), as
BRW/IRF files, and as binary data files.
DIF, SD, BRW/IRF, binary, and ASCII files are kept in the PC user's logon
group. These files are protected by the MPE file security in effect for
the group and account in which they are kept.
The contents of saved tables are kept as privileged MPE files in the
group PPCSAVE.HPOFFICE. These files can only be accessed by Access Server
running in privileged mode.
Data Access Across Groups and Accounts
If, on the host system, any of the databases or files you configure are
going to be accessed across group and/or account boundaries, you need to
ensure that they are "released" so they can be accessed.
Alternatively, you can let your PC users know what groups and accounts
their databases or files reside in and insist that they change their host
logon accordingly.
For details, please see Chapter 2 of this manual.