Safeguard Reference Manual (G06.29+, H06.08+, J06.03+)

Event-Exit-Process Commands
Safeguard Reference Manual — 520618-030
15 - 26
Processing of Authorization Requests
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Password change with the PASSWORD program
•
Password change with the ADD USER, ALTER USER, ADD ALIAS, or ALTER
ALIAS commands
•
Password change interactive logon if ENABLE-AUTHENTICATE-EVENT is OFF
Processing of Authorization Requests
When ENABLE-AUTHORIZATION-EVENT is ON, authorization requests are routed to
the event-exit process. When a subject attempts to access an object, the request flows
through the application to the appropriate subsystem software, which calls the
privileged library procedure PROTECTION_CHECK_. This request is forwarded by
PROTECTION_CHECK_ to the Safeguard SMON, which in turn routes the request to
the event-exit process for evaluation. The message links between the SMON and the
event-exit process are file-system messages (WRITEREAD[X]) in the format shown in
Table 15-2 on page 15-15 through Table 15-8 on page 15-23.
For the event-exit and Safeguard security policies to interact in a meaningful manner,
both policies must support the same types of rulings. Safeguard authorization supports
rulings of YES, NO, or NORECORD (no opinion). The event-exit process must support
these same rulings. If the event-exit process has no opinion on the ruling for a given
object, it must respond with NORECORD in the Status field of the Header_Data
message. If the event exit responded YES in this instance, a false positive would be
passed to the Safeguard software, and Safeguard might grant access to a disk file that
should have been controlled by Guardian security.
If the event-exit process rules NO on the access attempt, the SMON returns the denial
to PROTECTION_CHECK_ without further processing.
If the event-exit process rules YES or NORECORD on the access attempt, the
Safeguard software performs its own access check and returns the combination of the
two results to PROTECTION_CHECK_. Therefore, the event-exit process cannot
unilaterally grant access to an object if that access is denied by a Safeguard protection
record. If the Safeguard access check also results in NORECORD, Guardian security
applies.
Table 15-11 shows results of access attempts based on different rulings from the
event-exit process and the Safeguard subsystem. The final access control result
appears in the PROTECTION_CHECK_ column for all cases except those in which the