Password phrase enhancement for IMS Connect

In IMS 15, IMS Connect is enhanced to support password phrases with 9 - 100 characters for IMS database clients using Open Database function and for IMS transaction manager user-provided clients using HWSSMPL0, HWSSMPL1, or equivalent user-defined exit routines.

This enhancement is delivered with APAR PH14651 (PTF UI65540).

Previously, IMS Connect rejected any passwords with a length greater than 8 characters for IMS database clients using Open Database function and for IMS transaction manager user-provided clients using HWSSMPL0, HWSSMPL1, or equivalent user-defined exit routines. With this enhancement, password phrases with lengths that are greater than 8 characters and up to 100 characters are supported by IMS Connect. This enhancement enables you to create stronger passwords with higher complexity and security.

Changes to troubleshooting for IMS

For a list of the messages and codes that are new or changed for this enhancement, see the IMS messages and codes row in the table in Password phrase enhancement for IMS Connect.

For a complete list of all of the new, changed, and deleted messages, and abend codes in IMS 15, see Message and code changes in IMS 15.

Changes to exit routines

The following changes are made with this enhancement to the HWSAUTH0 user exit routine parameter list:

In the field AUTPM_PVER, new version numbers 65 and 66 are added.
In the field AUTPM_Flag1, a new flag byte X'20' is added.
The AUTPM_APssword field is used as the address of passwords or password phrases.
A new field AUTPM_APsswordL is added to represent the address of a fullword that contains the length (1 - 100) of the password or the password phrase.

Documentation changes

The following table lists the publications that contain new or changed topics for the New function name enhancement. Publications that are not impacted by this enhancement are not included in the table.

Table 1. Links to topics that have new or changed content for this enhancement
Publication	New or changed topics
Release planning	General planning information for IMS 15 Changed messages and codes for IMS 15 IMS 15 enhancements IMS 15 system continuous delivery functions Password phrase enhancement for IMS Connect (new) (this topic)
Communications and connections	IMS Connect and TCP/IP communications IMS Connect security support IMS Connect password management Changing RACF password phrases by using client messages
IMS messages and codes	Changed messages and codes for IMS 15 Non-DFS messages HWS messages (IMS Connect) HWSP1503E IMS component codes IMS Connect return and reason codes Return and reason codes for IMS Connect exits
Exit routines	IMS Connect exit routines IMS Connect function-specific exit routines IMS Connect DB security user exit routine (HWSAUTH0)