HP-UX Role-Based Access Control B.11.31.05 Release Notes

1 HP-UX RBAC Overview
HP-UX RBAC is an alternative to the traditional “all-or-nothing” root user model, which grants
permissions to the root user for all operations, and denies permissions to non-root users for
certain operations. HP-UX RBAC allows you to distribute administrative responsibilities by
creating roles with appropriate authorizations and assigning them to non-root users and groups.
HP-UX RBAC includes the following main components:
• Privilege shells (privsh, privksh, and privcsh) that automatically invoke the access
control subsystem to run commands with privileges when appropriate.
• RBAC System Management Homepage (SMH) integration to allow the graphical management
of the RBAC databases through a Web interface.
• The privrun wrapper command that allows authorized users and groups to run existing
legacy applications with varying levels of privileges without modifying the application.
• The privedit command that allows authorized users and groups to edit files they normally
would not be able to edit because of file permissions or Access Control Lists.
• Customizable Access Control Policy Switch (ACPS) that determines whether a subject is
authorized to perform an operation on an object.
• Access Control Policy Module (ACPM) to evaluate HP-UX RBAC databases and service
access control requests.
• Management commands to edit and validate HP-UX RBAC database files.
HP-UX RBAC Features
HP-UX RBAC offers the following features:
• Integrates with the Fine-Grained Privileges and Compartments components of the HP-UX
11i Security Containment features.
• Integrates with HP-UX audit system to produce a single, unified audit trail.
• Pluggable architecture for customizing access control decisions and integrating existing
access control policy information.
• Pre-defined configuration files to facilitate quick and easy deployment.
• Flexible re-authentication ability via PAM to allow restrictions on a per command basis.
• Fully supported HP product.
HP-UX RBAC Features 7