Security Considerations

Recommendation

BMC recommends that you perform custom changes to already defined properties in the custom/pronet.conf file to retain the changes for upgrades.

This topic lists security considerations and recommendations that ensure maximum security while using BMC ProactiveNet.

- BMC ProactiveNet Server security considerations
- BMC ProactiveNet Integration Service security
  - Restricting the Integration Service to receive connections from a specific IPAddress
  - Configuring agent controller to present a specific IP Address to an Integration Service if server has more than one NIC

BMC ProactiveNet Server security considerations

Running BMC ProactiveNet over HTTPS interface

To disable HTTP interface and run BMC ProactiveNet over HTTPS, configure the Apache configuration file httpd.conf and remove entries for port 80. httpd.conf is located in the following directories, depending on your operating system:

(Solaris or Linux): InstallationDirectory/pw/apache/conf
(Microsoft Windows): InstallationDirectory\pw\ApacheGroup\Apache

Setting BMC ProactiveNet to use PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) to access computer level credentials

This is not available in the current BMC ProactiveNet release.

Changing BMC ProactiveNet user names and passwords

User names and passwords are stored in the database on BMC ProactiveNet Server. All passwords are kept in encrypted format. Only database users with administrative privileges have access to user name and password information.

Changing the BMC ProactiveNet password policy

You can set password strength by modifying the following entries in the pronet.conf file:

pronet.login.minLength=6
pronet.login.maxLength=15
pronet.login.numericChars=1

Location of the HTTPS/SSL private key on BMC ProactiveNet Server

(Solaris or Linux): InstallationDirectory/pw/apache/conf/
Read only by the root user (BMC ProactiveNet Install User)
(Windows): InstallationDirectory\pw\ApacheGroup\Apache which can be read only by the root (BMC ProactiveNet install User) user.

Automatically locking user accounts after certain number of failed logon attempts

BMC ProactiveNet does not lock user accounts. However, all logon failures are recorded in ProactiveNet.log. To lock accounts, you can write a script to delete the account based on the log file entries.

Setting automatic log out of users after a certain period of inactivity

By default, inactive users are logged out of the Operations Console after 24 hours. However, you can customize BMC ProactiveNet globally for all users:

Set the pronet.html.globalsession.timeout property in the pronet.conf file located in the InstallationDirectory/pw/custom/conf directory.
If you change this property, make sure to set the same log out period in the Tomcat configuration file InstallationDirectory/pw/tomcat/conf/web.xml (line 321).
<session-config>
<session-timeout>1440</session-timeout>
</session-config>
Restart the BMC ProactiveNet server by running the command:
pw system start
Note
When the BMC ProactiveNet server is restarted, all users will be logged out.

Configuring Apache server to accept only SSL v3 requests

Add the entry SSLProtocol +SSLv3 just above the directive SSLEngine on, in the Apache httpd-ssl.conf configuration file. httpd-ssl.conf is located in the following directories, depending on your operating system:

(Solaris or Linux): InstallationDirectory/pw/apache/conf
(Microsoft Windows): InstallationDirectory\pw\ApacheGroup\Apache

Kerberos authentication to Active Directory

Currently not supported.

Mixed Authentication modes

For example, NTLM (legacy windows authentication method), Kerberos (current windows authentication method), and Siteminder (cross platform SSO tool used by internet facing platforms) are not supported.

BMC ProactiveNet Integration Service security

Restricting the Integration Service to receive connections from a specific IPAddress

Use the following property in pronet.conf:
pronet.apps.agent.authorizedcontrolleraddress=<ipaddress>

Configuring agent controller to present a specific IP Address to an Integration Service if server has more than one NIC

Set the following property in the custom/pronet.conf file:
pronet.apps.agentcontroller.useIPForAgentConnection=<ipaddress>
If the server's computer has more than one IP (more than one NIC), set this property to the IP address that the agent controller will present while connecting to the agent.