JS7 JobScheduler

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changes.mady.by.user Andreas Püschel

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Table of Contents

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 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-conformant way.

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

Default Configuration

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

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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 not recommended as they cannot be verified to a trusted source.
    • As HTTPS is limited to secure connections, additional authentication is required. 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.
    • The JS7 - Secure Connections article explains the use of the built-in Certificate Authority and the use with external Certificate Authorities.
    • For detailed instructions for configuration see:
  • Restrict use of network interfaces:

Database Connections

The JOC Cockpit is the only JS7 component that uses a database.

Database connections are based on JDBC. If JDBC type 4 drivers are used then a DBMS client is not required for the operation of the JOC Cockpit. The Hibernate access layer is used for database access.

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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 specification of alternative JDBC Drivers that can be downloaded from the respective vendor's web site.
    • to specify specification of individual Hibernate configuration files with security related settings.
  • For details see see the JS7 - Database article.

Secure Configuration

  • 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 access to MySQL® databases.
    • For use with SQL Server® the JDBC Driver is not included, instead . Instead users have to download a current JDBC Driver from the vendor's site.
    • For use with Oracle® newer JDBC Driver versions might be available from the vendor's web site.
  • Vendor-specific JDBC Drivers include support for specific authentication mechanisms, for . For example
  • Consider additional security related settings that apply to your DBMS in the Hibernate configuration file, for . For the location of this file see see the JS7 - Database article.

Access Management

Access to JS7 components is centrally secured by the JS7 - REST Web Service API. This interface is used by the JS7 - Browser User Interface and by external applications using the REST API.

Roles and Permissions

Default Configuration

  • Consider Refer to 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 which 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 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 the JOC Cockpit via the JS7 - REST Web Service API.
    • Default authentication for the connection from the JOC Cockpit to the Controller is provided from by 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 which holds the password setting optionally as a hashed value.
    • It is recommended to use that certificate based authentication by using HTTPS connections with mutual authentication is implemented, see JS7 - Controller HTTPS Connections.
  • JS7 Agents are not accessed by users but exclusively by a JS7 Controller. Default authentication is not provided.

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  • Using the default root user account that ships with the JOC Cockpit is not recommended. The default 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 the 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 whenever possible to establish role assignment for users based on membership in LDAP security groups.

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  • LDAP Directory Service integration is not in place.
  • Using the default configuration with local authentication for access to the JOC Cockpit is not recommended.

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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 for any LDAP compliant product such as Microsoft Active Directory®, OpenLDAP etc.
  • For details about LDAP support see see the JS7 - LDAP Identity Service article.

Credentials Management

Database Credentials

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  • Database credentials are specified during installation and are added to the following Hibernate configuration files:
    • JOC Cockpit: for access to the reporting database: JETTY_BASE/resources/joc/reporting.hibernate.cfg.xml
    • For details see see the  JS7 - Database article.
  • Default values are not provided by the installer.

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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 . They do not provide additional security. However, however, they contribute perfectly contribute to obfuscation.
    • There is one way only how to securely handle passwords: do not to use them.
  • Use Integrated Security

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  • 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. 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 which allows secure configuration of the users that are allowed to execute certain commands (sudoers file). In addition sudo provides reporting capabilities about the (ab)use of commands.
    • In Windows environments:
      • You can use the Windows Credential Manager to safely store the credentials of the user account that a job should be executed for. The 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 Agent or workflow configuration.
      • Find detailed information with the JS7 - Running Jobs as a different User 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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