HP-UX Event ManagerAdministrator's Guide

Configuring Event Manager
Event Authorization
Chapter 3 73
Event Authorization
For the following reasons, security is an important consideration when
dealing with events:
• Uncontrolled access to certain event information can provide an
unauthorized user with sensitive information about system
operation.
• Posting certain events may cause critical system actions, for
example, application failover or system shut down, to occur.
Traditionally, event information security is maintained by restricting
read access to log files and limiting certain posting operations to the
superuser. As the Event Manager daemon and event retrieval facilities
provide alternate means of access to all events, both as they are posted
and after they are logged, the daemons also provide a way to limit access,
so that events are seen only by authorized users. You can enable access
control by providing authorization facilities and using authentication
techniques.
You must avoid compromising security when writing executable
functions to be used in the environment. For more information about
protecting channel functions, see the HP-UX Event Manager
Programmer’s Guide.
User Authentication
The Event Manager daemon authenticates the identities of all local
system users before accepting any connection request.
User Authorization
Access to events is controlled by the Event Manager authorization file,
/etc/evm.auth.
The superuser can authorize individual users or groups of users to
perform the following actions:
• Post selected events
• Access (subscribe to or retrieve from storage) selected events
• Execute selected services