IBM Power Ideas Portal


This portal is to open public enhancement requests against IBM Power Systems products, including IBM i. To view all of your ideas submitted to IBM, create and manage groups of Ideas, or create an idea explicitly set to be either visible by all (public) or visible only to you and IBM (private), use the IBM Unified Ideas Portal (https://ideas.ibm.com).


Shape the future of IBM!

We invite you to shape the future of IBM, including product roadmaps, by submitting ideas that matter to you the most. Here's how it works:

Search existing ideas

Start by searching and reviewing ideas and requests to enhance a product or service. Take a look at ideas others have posted, and add a comment, vote, or subscribe to updates on them if they matter to you. If you can't find what you are looking for,

Post your ideas

  1. Post an idea.

  2. Get feedback from the IBM team and other customers to refine your idea.

  3. Follow the idea through the IBM Ideas process.


Specific links you will want to bookmark for future use

Welcome to the IBM Ideas Portal (https://www.ibm.com/ideas) - Use this site to find out additional information and details about the IBM Ideas process and statuses.

IBM Unified Ideas Portal (https://ideas.ibm.com) - Use this site to view all of your ideas, create new ideas for any IBM product, or search for ideas across all of IBM.

ideasibm@us.ibm.com - Use this email to suggest enhancements to the Ideas process or request help from IBM for submitting your Ideas.

Add a new idea Subscribe
Status Not under consideration
Workspace AIX
Created by Guest
Created on Nov 21, 2018

RELATED IDEAS

useradm/secadm RBAC role has ability to change the root user UID

Hi,

I recently found that using the ‘useradm & secadm' RBAC roles in AIX will allow someone to modify the root account and change the UID of root user, effectively destroying the root account and stopping root daemons on the server from functioning. Root is no longer privileged, has no access to any root commands and the system becomes very unstable until /etc/passwd can be reverted so root is UID 0 again.

I can't think of a valid reason why anyone would ever actually want to change the UID of the root account. However even if they did want to change it , surely this would be done directly as the root user and not via some delegated authority to non-root user.

I logged a PMR to see if this was a bug /defect and also try and work out how we can restrict our existing roles to avoid someone accidentally (or intentionally) performing this action and destroying servers. The development team advised:

“They said that "useradm" role able to change UID of root user is not a defect. Privilege user will able to perform specific operations similar root. So if you still think this needs to be changed, I request you to kindly raise an RFE”

To me (unless I am missing something here) these useradm/secadm roles seem to have a security issue in that they can manipulate and break the root account. They cannot change the root password, but they can change the UID and maybe other things too.

Maybe there is something else we can do to tighten these roles (I'm definitely no expert) but I wanted to log the RFE to see what you think?

Regards,
Graeme

Idea priority Medium
  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Aug 13, 2020

    IBM has evaluated the priority of this enhancement proposal relative to other future product content and determined that this RFE will not be pursued for a future product release

  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Feb 6, 2019

    Hi, just one more question.
    Instead of using the built in secadm/useradm roles, might it be possible for us to create a brand new custom role that allowed an account administrator to create new accounts and modify existing accounts , but NOT the root account ?
    Might this be an option for us ?

  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Feb 6, 2019

    Hello , thank you for the update. Sorry about the delay in coming back to you.

    You have mentioned that this role behaviour is by design. Is there any option to get additional functionality considered to create a role or option where the root account cannot be manipulated? Possibly as part of a future release of AIX ?

    Thank you,

  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Dec 17, 2018

    .Hi, The current behavior that useradm/sedadm can change user attribute including root is by design.
    Because of this power, one has to be very careful assigning the role of useradm and secadm.
    In RBAC environment, it's possible to disable root privilege. Similarly, the role having that authorization
    also needs to be carefully managed.

By clicking the "Post Comment" or "Submit Idea" button, you are agreeing to the IBM Ideas Portal Terms of Use.
Do not place IBM confidential, company confidential, or personal information into any field.