HP Serviceguard Manager Plug-in Security Whitepaper, March 2009

Executive Summary
Serviceguard Manager
plug
-
in
is a web
application
to monitor and control
a
Serviceguard cluster.
It
is
a
"plug
-
in" to
HP
System Management Homepage framework (SMH)
. It
runs on
a node which
is
a
member of the cluster being managed. The security model of SgmgrPI integrates tightly with that of
SMH
an
d Serviceguard. It depends on
SMH to authenticate
remote client,
and collaborates with
Serviceguard authorization system to
control access to all
S
erviceguard operations
and data
.
Overview
Purpose
of this Document
The web
-
based version of Serviceguard Manager
, called the Serviceguard Manager plug
-
in
(SgmgrPI),
enables
remote
management
of
a
Serviceguard
cluster from a web bro
wser. It is a "plug
-
in" to HP System Management Homepage (SMH) infra
structure as a web application. As such, many
SgmgrPI operational tasks are delegated to SMH, including life cycle management, client
authentication,
user
role
identification,
and secure s
ession establishment.
To service a user request, SgmgrPI
uses
the
Serviceguard command line
interface
(CLI) to manipulate
the managed cluster on behalf of the remote user. It is critical that the Serviceguard access control
policy is strictly observed and en
forced through this web
-
based access path enabled by SgmgrPI.
SgmgrPI must
perform trusted operations
within the Serviceguard security domain.
This p
aper describes
the
SgmgrPI security model in the context of its integration
with
SMH
and
Serviceguard
.
Scope
of this Document
This white
paper
focuses on
the
SgmgrPI security model with respect
to its integration with SMH and
Serviceguard. It inspects the complete access path as a request travel
s
through SMH, SgmgrPI and
Serviceguard.
This paper will reference
the
SMH
and Serviceguard security model
s, but not elaborate
in detail
.
The "Related Documents" section provides a list of references that
provide the
relevant
detail
ed
information not covered here.
Audience
This white
paper is intended to be used by an operator
, sy
stem administrator,
or anyone interested in
reviewing the security of
SgmgrPI
.
Terms and Definitions
Term
Definition
Node
A host system or server that is configured to be a member of a Serviceguard cluster
PAM
Pluggable Authentication Module.
It is an
architecture that is specified in Open Group RFC 86.0.
PAM allows multiple authentication technologies to coexist.
T
he
/etc/pam.conf
configuration file
determines the authentication module to use that is transparent to the applications
Package
Application
services (individual Linux processes) grouped together and managed as a unit within
Serviceguard in the event that a failover is required
RBA
C
Role Based Access
Control
. A
n
access control policy used by Service
g
uard Manager and
Serviceguard to authorize
access to its data and operations