Title

Assignment of the RACF OPERATIONS attribute to individual userids must be fully justified. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

A user possessing the OPERATIONS attribute has authorization to do maintenance operations on all RACF-protected data sets, tape volumes, and DASD volumes except those where the access list specifically limits the OPERATIONS user to a lower access authority than the operation requires. Because the OPERATIONS and GROUP-OPERATIONS privileges allow widespread access they should be limited to users documented with a valid requirement. Delegation of GROUP-OPERATIONS processing to other personnel by site-defined Group Administrators is forbidden.

Check Content

a) Refer to the following reports produced by the RACF Data Collection: - DSMON.RPT(RACUSR) - DSMON.RPT(RACGRP) - RACFCMDS.RPT(LISTUSER) Automated Analysis requires Additional Analysis. Refer to the following report produced by the RACF Data Collection: - PDI(RACF0720) b) Ensure the following items are in effect regarding the OPERATIONS attribute: 1) Authorization to the SYSTEM OPERATIONS attribute is restricted to key systems personnel, such as individuals responsible for continuing operations, Storage Management, and emergency recovery. 2) At minimum, ensure that any users connected to sensitive system dataset HLQ groups with the Group-OPERATIONS are key systems personnel, such as individuals responsible for continuing operations, Storage Management, and emergency recovery. . Otherwise, Group-OPERATIONS is allowed. c) If both items in (b) are true, there is NO FINDING. d) If either item in (b) is untrue, this is a FINDING.

Fix Text

Review all USERIDs with the OPERATIONS attribute. Ensure documentation providing justification for access is maintained and filed with the IAO, and that unjustified access is removed. A sample command to remove the OPERATIONS attribute from a userid is shown here: ALU <userid> NOOPERATIONS To remove the Group-Operations attribute: CO <user> GROUP(<groupname>) NOOPERATIONS

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-294r3_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-294

Group Title: RACF0720

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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