IBM WebSphere V5.0 Security - CGISecurity

12.1 End-to-end security
This part of the book largely concentrates on securing WebSphere hosted
applications, but the application is only one part of the e-business infrastructure
which provides the services to support the publication of applications to the
intended user audience.
In order to provide a secure solution, the entire infrastructure and the flow of data
through the infrastructure must be examined for possible breaches. Best
practices require that a complete Risk Analysis be carried out and Risk Mitigation
processes implemented with the remaining risks proactively monitored and the
entire system regularly audited.
Security needs to be addressed at several levels, physical access, network
access, platform operating system(s), application services throughout the
infrastructure, for example: Web server software, middleware connectors and
messaging infrastructure, and trusted operational personnel.
Each level must be addressed both independently of and together with the
others. The most trivial example would be a system where all other levels had
been addressed except that of the personnel.
Corrupt and/or malicious employees with authorized access to a system are the
single greatest security threat and, apart from proactive auditing, there is little
that can be effective there in a technological solution.
Though this is often overlooked, access to the physical elements of a system can
open the system to attack both by intruders, people who should not have
physical access and in the more common case by otherwise authorized
personnel. Once direct access to either the servers or the network devices, for
example the hub/switch to which clustered application servers are connected, is
obtained, then all the other methods of attack become much easier.
If the platform operating systems have not been “hardened” then free range
administrative and diagnostic tools installed by default can be used both to cause
damage and compromise information, either by changing or stealing it.
“Hardening” systems at this level must include file permissions and passwords.
Particular care must be taken with “remote” administration tools, be they
accessed by browser or thick client.
The network level is popularly thought to be most often attacked, at least as
represented in the popular media. After all, the point of e-business applications is
to publish them so that Internet access for the intended audience is available.
Attacks such as Denial of Service (DoS), where the server is relentlessly
bombarded with thousands of spurious requests with the intention of flooding the
Chapter 12. Tivoli Access Manager 371