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532 Lotus Security Handbook
If the home server is unavailable when a Notes client is installed – for example,
when a user is disconnected – the workstation ECL is created with default
settings, rather than being created from the administration ECL.
Note: Technically, when a server is initially installed, there is no Admin ECL.
When a client attempts to edit the workstation ECL, or refresh it from an admin
ECL that does not exist, the client creates an ECL with default settings that
are coded into the client. The Admin ECL exists on disk, once an administrator
modifies and saves it. Once the modified administration ECL is saved to disk,
then that is the ECL that is copied to user workstations.
You use the administration ECL to define and deploy customized ECLs for your
users. You can control ECL changes or allow users to modify their own ECLs.
Furthermore, you can update your users' workstation ECLs as security
requirements change – automatically, through the use of a security settings
document deployed through a policy; or manually, by asking users to refresh
their workstation ECLs.
To create customized ECLs that can be deployed for specific groups of users,
you must use a security settings document that is deployed through a server
policy. For example, you can create one ECL exclusively for contract employees
and another ECL for full-time employees.
For more information on configuring and deploying ECLs, see “Protecting User
Workstations with Execution Control Lists” in the Domino 6 Administration Guide.
For more information on configuring a security settings document for deploying
ECLs, see “Using Policies” in the Domino 6 Administration Guide.
Guidelines for effective ECLs
Your goal as an administrator is to limit the number of trusted signers for active
content, and the access that active content has to user workstations. To
accomplish this goal, limit the number of trustworthy signers in your organization
and ensure that workstation ECLs trust only those signers.
Use these guidelines to create secure ECLs:
► Create an administration ECL, or several administration ECLs, as necessary,
to deploy in your organization.
► Do not grant access to unsigned content. This creates a security hole that
allows potentially harmful code, malicious or otherwise, to access user
workstations. Keep the default access options for unsigned content.
► Do not let your users trust unsigned content. To prevent users from changing
their ECLs –for example, by giving access to unsigned content, or to content