IBM WebSphere V5.0 Security - CGISecurity

12.1 End-to-end securityThis part of the book largely concentrates on securing WebSphere hostedapplications, but the application is only one part of the e-business infrastructurewhich provides the services to support the publication of applications to theintended user audience.In order to provide a secure solution, the entire infrastructure and the flow of datathrough the infrastructure must be examined for possible breaches. Bestpractices require that a complete Risk Analysis be carried out and Risk Mitigationprocesses implemented with the remaining risks proactively monitored and theentire system regularly audited.Security needs to be addressed at several levels, physical access, networkaccess, platform operating system(s), application services throughout theinfrastructure, for example: Web server software, middleware connectors andmessaging infrastructure, and trusted operational personnel.Each level must be addressed both independently of and together with theothers. The most trivial example would be a system where all other levels hadbeen addressed except that of the personnel.Corrupt and/or malicious employees with authorized access to a system are thesingle greatest security threat and, apart from proactive auditing, there is littlethat can be effective there in a technological solution.Though this is often overlooked, access to the physical elements of a system canopen the system to attack both by intruders, people who should not havephysical access and in the more common case by otherwise authorizedpersonnel. Once direct access to either the servers or the network devices, forexample the hub/switch to which clustered application servers are connected, isobtained, then all the other methods of attack become much easier.If the platform operating systems have not been “hardened” then free rangeadministrative and diagnostic tools installed by default can be used both to causedamage 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 theyaccessed by browser or thick client.The network level is popularly thought to be most often attacked, at least asrepresented in the popular media. After all, the point of e-business applications isto publish them so that Internet access for the intended audience is available.Attacks such as Denial of Service (DoS), where the server is relentlesslybombarded with thousands of spurious requests with the intention of flooding theChapter 12. Tivoli Access Manager 371