Title

The IBM z/OS system administrator (SA) must develop a process to notify appropriate personnel when accounts are removed. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

When operating system accounts are disabled, user accessibility is affected. Accounts are utilized for identifying individual operating system users or for identifying the operating system processes themselves. Sending notification of account disabling events to the system administrator and information system security officers (ISSOs) 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. 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 SA for the documented process to notify appropriate personnel when accounts are removed. If there is no documented process, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Develop a documented process to notify appropriate personnel when accounts are removed.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-224016r998503_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-224016

Group Title: SRG-OS-000277-GPOS-00107

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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