Restricting user authorities on MFT agent actions

In addition to using groups to manage access to resources, you can enable an additional level of security to restrict the Managed File Transfer agent actions that a user can take. Grant authorities on an agent authority queue to a user to give the user permission to perform specific agent actions.

Enabling user authority management

To turn on user authority checking on agent actions, complete the following steps:

  1. In the agent.properties file, set the authorityChecking value to true. For more information, see The MFT agent.properties file.
  2. Ensure that the user who runs the agent has the IBM® MQ alternate user (ALT_USER) authority to the agent queue manager.

    [z/OS]On the z/OS® platform, the user that runs the agent must have ALT_USER authority to the user IDs that can request permission to perform an agent action.

Both agents involved in a transfer must have the same level of security enabled, that is, authorityChecking must be set to the same value in the property files of both agents. Transfers between agents that have different values for the authorityChecking property will fail.

Agent authority queues

The agent has authority queues that are used to manage which users have the authority to perform certain agent actions. The agent does not put or get messages to these queues. The agent authority queues are as follows:
  • SYSTEM.FTE.AUTHADM1.agent_name
  • SYSTEM.FTE.AUTHAGT1.agent_name
  • SYSTEM.FTE.AUTHMON1.agent_name
  • SYSTEM.FTE.AUTHOPS1.agent_name
  • SYSTEM.FTE.AUTHSCH1.agent_name
  • SYSTEM.FTE.AUTHTRN1.agent_name

When user authority management is enabled by setting the agent property authorityChecking=true, the authorities that a user has on the agent authority queues specify the actions that the user is authorized to take.

[V9.0.0.3 Mar 2018][V9.0.4 Oct 2017]Important: From IBM MQ 9.0.0 Fix Pack 3 and IBM MQ 9.0.4, inquire is a required permission on all of the agent authority queues.
The following table summarizes the IBM MQ access authorities that users or groups require in addition to inquire permission on an agent authority queue to perform specific actions.
Table 1. The level of IBM MQ access authority that a user or group requires on an agent authority queue to perform specific actions.
User action Managed File Transfer access authority Authority queues IBM MQ access authority

(Multiplatforms)

 RACF® access level

(z/OS only)
Shut down the agent, using the -m option on fteStopAgent command. Administration SYSTEM.FTE.AUTHADM1.agent_name BROWSE READ
Start a transfer of files from this agent Transfer source SYSTEM.FTE.AUTHTRN1.source_agent_name BROWSE READ
Run a managed call on this agent
Cancel a transfer of files from this agent started by the same user
Start a transfer of files to this agent Transfer destination SYSTEM.FTE.AUTHTRN1.destination_agent_name PUT UPDATE
Cancel a transfer of files to this agent started by the same user
Create a resource monitor Monitor SYSTEM.FTE.AUTHMON1.monitor_agent_name BROWSE READ
Delete a resource monitor created by the same user
Delete a resource monitor created by any user Monitor operations SYSTEM.FTE.AUTHOPS1.agent_name SET ALTER
Create a scheduled transfer Schedule SYSTEM.FTE.AUTHSCH1.source_agent_name BROWSE READ
Delete a scheduled transfer created by the same user
Delete a scheduled transfer created by any user or group Schedule operations SYSTEM.FTE.AUTHOPS1.agent_name PUT UPDATE
Cancel a transfer created either by the same user or group that started the transfer, or by another user or group Transfer operations SYSTEM.FTE.AUTHOPS1.source_agent_name SYSTEM.FTE.AUTHOPS1.destination_agent_name BROWSE READ
Note: To give a user or group permission to set up a resource monitor or scheduled transfer that starts a transfer the user needs both the Monitor or Schedule authority and Transfer source and Transfer destination authorities.

[V9.0.0.3 Mar 2018][V9.0.4 Oct 2017]From IBM MQ 9.0.0 Fix Pack 3 and IBM MQ 9.0.4, the order in which authority checks are performed when an agent receives a request to cancel a file transfer is changed so that the agent first checks whether the user requesting the cancellation is the same user who started the transfer. If the user canceling the transfer is not the same as the user that requested it, the agent then checks if the canceling user has browse permission on SYSTEM.FTE.AUTHOPS1.agent_name queues. The change to the order of checking avoids unexpected errors in agent and queue manager error logs when the user who requested the file transfer and the user who requested the cancellation are the same.

A user can start one agent and want it to interact with another agent. How the two agents can interact depends on the level of access authority that the user has on the other agent authority queue.
Table 2. The level of IBM MQ access authority that the user that starts an agent requires on another agent authority queue so that files can be transferred between the agents.
Agent action Managed File Transfer access authority Authority queues IBM MQ access authority

(Multiplatforms)

 RACF access level

(z/OS only)
Receive a transfer from

source_agent

 Agent source SYSTEM.FTE.AUTHAGT1.source_agent_name BROWSE READ
Send a transfer to

destination_agent

 Agent destination SYSTEM.FTE.AUTHAGT1.destination_agent_name PUT UPDATE

Configuring user authority management

To authorize a user to be able to perform an action on an agent, grant the user the appropriate authority on the relevant authority queue. To grant authorities to a user, complete the following steps:

  1. Create a user on the system where the agent queue manager is located that has the same name as the user you want to give authority to perform agent actions. This user does not have to be active.
  2. Grant the user the appropriate authority on the relevant authority queue. If you are using Linux®, UNIX, or Windows, you can use the setmqaut command.
  3. Refresh the security configuration of the queue manager. You can use the REFRESH SECURITY MQSC command.

Example

[z/OS]The setmqaut command is not used on z/OS systems. For z/OS, instead use RACF. See Setting up security on z/OS for more information.

[IBM i]The setmqaut command is not used on IBM i systems. For IBM i, see Access authorities for IBM MQ objects, which describes how authorization for IBM MQ objects is done. There are three relevant CL commands available on IBM i: Grant MQ Object Authority (GRTMQMAUT), Revoke MQ Object Authority (RVKMQMAUT), and Refresh MQ Authority (RFRMQMAUT).

A user, who is a member of the group requestor_group, wants to set up a resource monitor on AGENT1 that transfers a file from AGENT1, which is running under the user user1, who is a member of the group user1_group, to AGENT2, which is running under the user user2, who is a member of the group user2_group. AGENT1 connects to QM1; AGENT2 connects to QM2. Both agents have authority checking enabled. To make this possible take the following steps:
  1. requestor must have Monitor authority on AGENT1. Set this authority by running the following command on the system where QM1 is running: 
    
setmqaut -m QM1 -t queue -n SYSTEM.FTE.AUTHMON1.AGENT1 -g requestor_group +browse
  2. requestor must have Transfer source authority on AGENT1. Set this authority by running the following command on the system where QM1 is running: 
    
setmqaut -m QM1 -t queue -n SYSTEM.FTE.AUTHTRN1.AGENT1 -g requestor_group +browse
  3. requestor must have Transfer destination authority on AGENT2. Set this authority by running the following command On the system where QM2 is running: 
    
setmqaut -m QM2 -t queue -n SYSTEM.FTE.AUTHTRN1.AGENT2 -g requestor_group +put
  4. user2 must have Agent source authority on AGENT1. Set this authority by running the following command on the system where QM1 is running: 
    
setmqaut -m QM1 -t queue -n SYSTEM.FTE.AUTHAGT1.AGENT1 -g user2_group +browse
  5. user1 must have Agent destination authority on AGENT2. Set this authority by running the following command on the system where QM2 is running: 
    
setmqaut -m QM2 -t queue -n SYSTEM.FTE.AUTHAGT1.AGENT2 -g user1_group +put

Logging

If user authority checking is enabled, failed authority checks cause a not authorized log message to be published to the coordination queue manager. See MFT message formats for security for more information.

Messages about user authority can be written to the agent event log. You can configure the amount of information written to the agent event log by setting the logAuthorityChecks property in the agent property file. By default the level of authority check logging is None. You can also set the value of logAuthorityChecks to Failures, which specifies that only failed authorization checks are reported, or All which specifies that failed and successful authorization checks are reported.

For more information, see The MFT agent.properties file.