JS7 JobScheduler

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article to be reworked

Update for current features and configuration items required.


Introduction

  • 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 at 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 conformant way.

Connection Management

JS7 components use the following connections:



Network Connections

All network connections are unidirectional, as indicated by the direction of the arrows in the above diagram.

Default Configuration

The following default configuration is implemented by the installer if users do not modify settings during installation:

  • All network connections make use of HTTP
    • Connections from a user browser to the JOC Cockpit
    • Connections from the PowerShell CLI to the JS7 - REST Web Service API
    • Connections from the JOC Cockpit REST Web Service to the JS7 Controller
    • Connections from the JS7 Controller 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 the port 40444
    • The JS7 Agent listens to port 4445
  • Network Interface Usage
    • By default JS7 components will listen to the above mentioned ports on all 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.

Secure Configuration

The following recommendations should be applied to ensure secure network connections.

Database Connections

All database connections are based on JDBC. If JDBC type 4 drivers are used then a DBMS client is not required for operation of JS7 components. JS7 components use Hibernate as their database access layer.

Default Configuration

  • JS7 ships with JDBC Drivers that are open source or that are free for bundling with our software.
  • The installer allows
    • to specify alternative JDBC Drivers that can be downloaded from the relevant vendor's web site.
    • to specify individual Hibernate configuration files with security related settings.
  • For details see Which Database Management Systems are supported by JobScheduler?

Secure Configuration

  • Depending on the DBMS in use it may be 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 use with Microsoft SQL Server the JDBC Driver is not included, instead the jTDS Driver is provided. In order to apply integrated security (see below chapter Credentials Management) it is recommended that a current Microsoft JDBC Driver is applied.
    • For use with Oracle newer JDBC Driver versions are available from the vendor's web site.
  • Vendor-specific JDBC Drivers include support for specific authentication mechanisms, e.g. use of JDBC with Oracle Wallet.
  • Consider additional security related settings that apply to your DBMS in the Hibernate configuration files: for access to the reporting database: ./resources/joc/reporting.hibernate.cfg.xml

Access Management

Access to JS7 components is centrally secured by the JS7 REST Web Service.

Default Configuration

  • Consider the hints from the JOC Cockpit - Security article
  • The JOC Cockpit REST Web Service ships with a default configuration in ./joc/resources/joc/shiro.ini that includes
    • using local authentication with accounts and passwords stored as hash values.  FEATURE AVAILABILITY STARTING FROM RELEASE 1.11.5
    • using local role assignment
    • the following default values for accounts, passwords and assigned roles (see JOC Cockpit - Authentication and Authorization for more informatio):

      • 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
        root=root, all

  • The JS7 Controller is assumed not to be accessed by users directly but exclusively via the JS7 REST Web Service. No default authentication is provided.
  • JS7 Agents are assumed not to be accessed by users directly but exclusively by a JS7 Controller. No default authentication is provided.

Secure Configuration

  • Do not use the default configuration with local authentication for the JS7 REST Web Service.
  • Do not allow any network connections to the JS7 Controller and Agents except as stated above.

Credentials Management

Database Credentials

Default Configuration

  • Database credentials are specified during installation and are added to the following Hibernate configuration files:
    • JOC Cockpit: for access to the reporting database: ./resources/joc/reporting.hibernate.cfg.xml
  • No default values are provided by the installer.

Secure Configuration

  • Do not use passwords.
    • Users frequently ask if JS7 can encrypt credentials. The answer is "no" as it makes no sense for an Open Source software component to handle a symmetric key.
    • There is one way only how to handle passwords: not to use them.
  • Use Integrated Security

Job Credentials

Default Configuration

  • The Windows Service for the JS7 Controller and Agent runs in the system account. 
    • The installer allows to specify a different account and to add credentials for that account.
  • By default jobs are executed in the context of the account that the JS7 Controller or JS7 Agent are operated for.

Secure Configuration

  • It is 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 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 privileges that are required to execute jobs.
  • Do not specify credentials for Windows Service accounts during installation:
    • The installer will store such credentials in its installation response file (Controller: jobscheduler_install.xml, Agent: jobscheduler_agent_install.xml)
    • 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:
    • For Unix environments
      • Your 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.
    • For 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 will then read the credentials and create a new process to run a job in the target user context. This is the preferred solution as it does not store credentials with the JobScheduler configuration.
      • Find detailed information from the JobScheduler Universal Agent - Running jobs as a different user article.
    • For all environments
  • For jobs that require credentials, e.g. to access a database, a credential store can be used, see the Using a Credential Store for Jobs article.
    • 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 API jobs (JavaScript, PowerShell etc.).

File Transfer Credentials

Such credentials apply to use of the YADE file transfer utility that is available from built-in job templates.

Default Configuration

Secure Configuration


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Secure Operation

Access Management

  • Access Management includes access to JOC Cockpit and to the REST Web Service. This applies to users who access the JOC Cockpit GUI and to scripts and applications that directly access the REST Web Service.
  • The JS7 Controller is assumed not to be accessed by users directly but exclusively via the JOC Cockpit REST Web Service. No default authentication is provided.
  • JS7 Universal Agents are assumed not to be accessed by users directly but exclusively by a JS7 Controller. No default authentication is provided.

Roles and Permissions

Default Configuration

  • The JOC Cockpit REST Web Service ships with a default configuration in ./joc/resources/joc/shiro.ini that includes
    • using local authentication with accounts and passwords stored as hash values,
    • using local role assignment,
    • the following default values for accounts, passwords and assigned roles (see JOC Cockpit - Authentication and Authorization for more information):

      • 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
        root=root, all

Secure Configuration

  • It is not recommended to use the default accounts that ship with JOC Cockpit. Default accounts are intended to enable initial login only.
  • A fine-grained set of permissions is available that apply to any operation in JOC Cockpit and in the REST Web Service. Such permissions can freely be grouped to roles.
  • If possible then LDAP Directory Services should be used to establish role assignment to users based on membership in LDAP security groups.

LDAP Directory Service

Default Configuration

  • It is not recommended to use the default configuration with local authentication for the JOC Cockpit REST Web Service.

Secure Configuration

  • LDAP Directory Services can be accessed for authentication and authorization:
    • users can connect by specifying their domain account.
    • optionally membership in security groups can be mapped to JobScheduler roles.
  • Using LDAP allows to operate a JOC Cockpit configuration that contains no account data, no passwords and no role assignments to users. 
  • This applies to any LDAP compliant product such as Microsoft Active Directory, OpenLDAP etc.

Credential Management

Database Credentials

Default Configuration

  • No default values are provided by the installer.

Secure Configuration

  • Do not use passwords.
    • Users frequently ask if JobScheduler can encrypt credentials. The answer is "no" as it makes no sense for an Open Source software component to handle a symmetric key.
    • There is one way only how to handle passwords: not to use them.
  • Use Integrated Security

Job Credentials

Default Configuration

  • The Windows Service for the JS7 Controller and Agent runs in the system account. 
    • The installer allows to specify a different account and to add credentials for that account.
  • By default jobs are executed in the context of the account that the JS7 Controller and JS7 Agent are operated for.

Secure Configuration

  • It is 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 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 privileges that are required to execute jobs.
  • Do not specify credentials for Windows Service accounts during installation:
    • The installer will store such credentials in its installation response file (Controller: jobscheduler_install.xml, Agent: jobscheduler_agent_install.xml)
    • 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:
    • For Unix environments
      • Your 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.
    • For 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 Agent will then read the credentials and create a new process to run a job in the target user context. This is the preferred solution as it does not store credentials with the job configuration.
      • Find detailed information from the JobScheduler Universal Agent - Running jobs as a different user article.
    • For all environments
  • For jobs that require credentials, e.g. to access a database, a credential store can be used, see the Using a Credential Store for Jobs article.
    • 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 API jobs (JavaScript, PowerShell etc.).

File Transfer Credentials

Such credentials apply to use of the YADE file transfer utility that is available from built-in job templates.

Default Configuration

Secure Configuration








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