Title

The IBM z/OS System Administrator (SA) must develop a process to notify Information System Security Officers (ISSOs) of account enabling actions. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

Once an attacker establishes access to a system, the attacker often attempts to create a persistent method of reestablishing access. One way to accomplish this is for the attacker to enable an existing disabled account. Sending notification of account enabling actions to the system administrator and ISSO is one method for mitigating this risk. Such a capability greatly reduces the risk that operating system accessibility will be negatively affected for extended periods of time and also provides logging that can be used for forensic purposes. In order to detect and respond to events that affect user accessibility and application processing, operating systems must audit account enabling actions and, as required, notify the appropriate individuals so they can investigate the event. To address access requirements, many operating systems can be integrated with enterprise-level authentication/access/auditing mechanisms that meet or exceed access control policy requirements.

Check Content

Ask the system Administrator for the documented processes to notify the Information System Security Officers (ISSOs) of account enabling actions. If there is no documented process, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Develop a documented process to notify the Information System Security Officers (ISSOs) of account enabling actions.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-223766r853611_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-223766

Group Title: SRG-OS-000304-GPOS-00121

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

Controls tied to check. These are derived from the CCIs shown above.