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Status Not under consideration
Workspace z/OS
Categories RACF
Created by Guest
Created on May 12, 2025

RELATED IDEAS

Connect command shouldn't have a default owner

Problem

When you do connects in RACF and don't specify an owner it will default to the user id of whoever executed the command, this should be changed as it is not secure and can negatively affect uptime. This becomes an issue if a security administrator forgets to add an owner or doesn't know what they're doing, because then when the administrator leaves the company and their user gets deleted all of their connects will become orphaned, it can also be an issue if the administrator changes job withing the company and now suddenly owns connects they shouldn't be allowed to own anymore.

Proposed solution

Have connects without an explicit owner fail

This should fail:

connect cooluser group(BADDIES)

Above command should result in a message like "[insert weird RACF error code] connect failed, no owner was specified"

This should go through:

connect cooluser group(BADDIES) owner(SECADM)

 

I think this should just always be the behavior of RACF and not just an extra setting that can be turned on, it's too dangerous the current way it functions.

Idea priority Medium
  • Guest
    Jun 3, 2025
    The owner specified on the CONNECT command does not factor into authorization decisions. However, we do feel the documentation could be updated to clarify this.
    Reply
  • Guest
    May 20, 2025
    Thank you for submitting this Idea. Can you provide more details on the perceived security risk?
    1 reply

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