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• The JS7 components are easy to install out-of-the-box. However, a number of configuration items have to be considered when operating the JS7 for a secure environment.
• Secure operation is applied to the following areas:
  • Connection Management
    
    • Network Connections
    • Database Connections
  • Access Management
    • Authentication
    • Authorization
  • Credentials Management
    • Database Credentials
    • Job Credentials
• Secure operation includes users configuring JS7 components in a compliance-conform conformant way.

Connection Management

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• All network connections make use of HTTP:
  • Connections by users to the JS7 - Browser User Interface
  • Connections by the PowerShell CLI to the JS7 - REST Web Service API
  • Connections by the JOC Cockpit to the JS7 Controller using the JS7 REST Web Service API to the JS7 Controller
  • Connections by the JS7 Controller instances to Agents
• Port Usage
  • The JOC Cockpit can be accessed at port 4446
  • The JOC Cockpit REST Web Service can be accessed at port 4446
  • The JS7 Controller uses port 4444
  • The JS7 Agent listens to port 4445
• Network Interface Usage
  • By default JS7 components will listen to the above mentioned ports on any available network interfaces.
• Firewall Settings
  • Open ports in your firewall exclusively for the hosts, protocols and ports as specified above. Consider allowing connections only for the directions indicated in the diagram above.

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• Configure network connections to use HTTPS:
  • Use of HTTPS includes providing valid certificates for the hosts that JS7 components are operated for. Use of self-signed certificates is a no-go not recommended as they cannot be verified to a trusted source.
  • As HTTPS is limited to secure connections, additional authentication is required, for example, when using HTTPS. In this case, a JS7 Controller instance is configured to authenticate with an Agent in order to guarantee that the Controller instance is , in fact, what it claims to be and is entitled to access the Agent.
  • JS7 - Secure Connections explains the use of the built-in certificate authority Certificate Authority and use with external certificate authoritiesCertificate Authorities.
  • For detailed instructions for the configuration see:
    • JS7 - JOC Cockpit HTTPS Connections explains HTTPS configuration for the JOC Cockpit and connection to the JS7 Controller.
    • JS7 - Controller HTTPS Connections
    • JS7 - Agent HTTPS Connections
• Restrict use of network interfaces
  • Consider restricting JS7 components to only listen to specific network interfaces.
  • The JS7 Controller can be configured by use of the --http_port and --https_port command line options to specify network interfaces, see JS7 - Controller - Command Line Operation.
  • The JS7 Agent can be configured to by use of the --http-port and --https-port options to specify network interfaces, see JS7 - Agent Command Line Operation.
  • JOC Cockpit has to be configured with corresponding port settingssimilarly can be configured to use specific network interfaces only, see:
    • JS7 - JOC Cockpit Configuration for Docker Containers
    • JS7 - JOC Cockpit Configuration Items

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• JS7 ships with JDBC Drivers that are open source or that are free for distribution with JS7.
• The JOC Cockpit installer allows
  
  • to specify alternative JDBC Drivers that can be downloaded from the relevant respective vendor's web site.
  • to specify individual Hibernate configuration files with security related settings.
• For details see JS7 - Database.

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• Depending on the DBMS version in use it is preferable to download and to apply the DBMS vendor's current JDBC Driver version:
  • For use with MySQL® the JDBC Driver is not included with JS7. Instead a MariaDB® driver is provided for accessing access to MySQL® databases.
  • For use with SQL Server® the JDBC Driver is not included, instead users have to download a current JDBC Driver from the vendor's site.
  • For use with Oracle® newer JDBC Driver versions are might be available from the vendor's web site.
• Vendor-specific JDBC Drivers include support for specific authentication mechanisms, for example the
  • use of JDBC with Oracle Wallet, see JS7 - How to make JOC Cockpit connect to an Oracle database using Wallet®,
  • use of JDBC with Integrated Security, see JS7 - How to connect to an SQL Server database without using passwords.
• Consider additional security related settings that apply to your DBMS in the Hibernate configuration file, for the location of this file see JS7 - Database.

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• Consider the hints provided in the JS7 - JOC Cockpit - Secure Operation article
• The JS7 - REST Web Service API ships with a default configuration in ./joc/resources/joc/shiro.ini that includes
  
  • use of local authentication with accounts and passwords stored as hash values.
  • use of local role assignment,
  • the following default values for user accounts, passwords and assigned roles (see JOC Cockpit - Authentication and Authorization for JS7 - Manage User Accounts for more information):
    • Active Accounts:
      • root=root, all
    • Deactivated Accounts (passwords are presented in plain text for documentation purposes and are hashed in the shiro.ini configuration file:

      • # administrator=secret, administrator
# application_manager=secret, application_manager
# it_operator=secret, it_operator
# incident_manager=secret, incident_manager
# business_user=secret, business_user
# api_user=secret, api_user

• The JS7 Controller is not accessed by users but exclusively by JOC Cockpit via the JS7 - REST Web Service API.
  • Default authentication for the connection from JOC Cockpit to the Controller is provided from symmetric passwords available with
    • the JOC Cockpit Settings page with the settings controller_connection_joc_password and controller_connection_history_password,
    • the Controller's private.conf file that holds the password setting optionally as a hashed value.
  • It is recommended to use certificate based authentication by HTTPS connections with mutual authentication, see JS7 - Controller HTTPS Connections.
• JS7 Agents are not accessed by users but exclusively by a JS7 Controller. Default authentication is not provided.

Secure Configuration

• Using the default accounts root user account that ship ships with JOC Cockpit is not recommended. The default accounts are user account is intended to enable initial login only.
• A fine-grained set of permissions is available that can be applied to any operation in JOC Cockpit and in the JS7 REST Web Service API. Such permissions can freely be grouped to roles.
• LDAP Directory Services should be used when ever possible to establish role assignment for users based on membership in LDAP security groups.
• For the connection from JOC Cockpit to Controllers certificate based authentication by HTTPS connections with mutual authentication should be used, see JS7 - Controller HTTPS Connections.

LDAP Directory Service

Default Configuration

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• LDAP Directory Services can be accessed for authentication and authorization:
  • users can connect by specifying their domain account.
  • membership in security groups can be optionally mapped to roles.
• The use of LDAP allows operation of a JOC Cockpit configuration that contains neither account data, passwords nor user role assignments. 
• This applies to any LDAP compliant product such as Microsoft Active Directory®, OpenLDAP etc.
• For details of about LDAP configuration support see JS7 - LDAP ConfigurationIdentity Service.

Credentials Management

Database Credentials

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• Do not use passwords.
  • Users frequently ask if JS7 can encrypt credentials. The answer is "no" as it makes no sense to handle a symmetric key that is in reach of the component that makes use of it. Encrypted passwords correspond to the "key under the mat", they do not provide additional security, however, they perfectly contribute to obfuscation.
  • There is one way only how to securely handle passwords: not to use them.
• Use Integrated Security
  • This authentication scheme is based on the fact that the account that a component is operated for is already authenticated and therefore can access a database without specifying user/password credentials.
  • This feature is available for a number of DBMS such as
    • Microsoft SQL Server®, see the JS7 - How to connect to an SQL Server database without using passwords article.
    • Oracle® that includes support for Oracle® Wallet, see the JS7 - How to make JOC Cockpit connect to an Oracle database without using passwordsWallet® article.

Job Credentials

Default Configuration

• The Windows Service for the JS7 Controller and Agent runs in the system account. 
  • The installer allows specification of a different account and the addition of credentials for that account. The installer does not store passwords entered during installation.
• By default jobs are executed in the context of the account that the JS7 Agent is operated with.

Secure Configuration

• It is considered a bad idea to run a JS7 Controller or Agent using a Unix root account or Windows Administrator account.
  • Certainly this makes life easy when it comes to switching to other user accounts or for accessing files.
  • However, you should not grant more permissions to a process than required.
• Use specific user accounts to run JS7 Controllers and Agents:
  • Do not use the system account (Windows) or root (Unix).
  • Create specific service accounts that are limited to the privileges that are required to execute jobs.
• Do not specify credentials for Windows Service accounts during installation:
  • The installer does not store such credentials but forwards them to the Windows Service interface, however, there is no guarantee that such credentials will be logged by some Windows mechanism.
  • Instead, use the Windows Service Panel to manually specify credentials for the service account.
• There are a number of options when it comes to running jobs for different user accounts:
  • In Unix environments
    • Job scripts can switch to a different user context by use of sudo or su commands. sudo is the preferred option as this the standard Unix tool that allows secure configuration of the users that are allowed to execute certain commands (sudoers file). In addition sudo provides reporting capabilities about (ab)use of commands.
  • In Windows environments
    • You can use the Windows Credential Manager to safely store credentials of the user account that a job should be executed for. The JobScheduler Agent will then read the credentials and will create a new process to run a job in the target user context. This is the preferred solution as it does not store credentials in the JobScheduler Agent or workflow configuration.
    • Find detailed information with the JS7 - Running jobs Jobs as a different userUser article.
  • For all environments
    • You can run a number of Agents in parallel using different user accounts.
• A credential store can be used for jobs that require credentials, e.g. to access a database: see the JS7 - Credential Store article for more information.
  • Credentials are not provided from parameters (that could be logged in clear text), instead an interface is provided that allows on demand access to the credential store. 
  • This feature is available for Shell jobs and for JVM jobs.

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