Title

The IBM z/VM CA VM:Secure product ADMIN GLOBALS command must be restricted to systems programming personnel. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

Operating system management functionality includes functions necessary for administration and requires privileged user access. Allowing non-privileged users to access operating system management functionality capabilities increases the risk that non-privileged users may obtain elevated privileges. Operating system management functionality includes functions necessary to administer console, network components, workstations, or servers and typically requires privileged user access. The separation of user functionality from information system management functionality is either physical or logical and is accomplished by using different computers, different central processing units, different instances of the operating system, different network addresses, different TCP/UDP ports, virtualization techniques, combinations of these methods, or other methods, as appropriate. An example of this type of separation is observed in web administrative interfaces that use separate authentication methods for users of any other information system resources. This may include isolating the administrative interface on a different security domain and with additional access controls.

Check Content

Examine the “AUTHORIZ” Config file. If authorization to “ADMIN GLOBALS” is granted to “SYS Admin”, this is not a finding.

Fix Text

Configure grant statements in the “AUTHORIZ” file using the “ADMIN GLOBALS” command that list Sys Admins only.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID:

Vulnerability ID: IBMZ-VM-000690

Group Title:

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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