Access policies and communication security

File access considerations for the Text Search server

The process owner of the text server process requires read and write access to configuration data and all collection data, including collections located in custom collection directories.

For the integrated text server the process owner is the instance owner, for stand-alone text servers it is the user who starts the text server with the startup command.

Collections may include confidential data that can be partially readable when opening a file directly. To prevent unauthorized access, check and update the access permissions to configuration and collection directories to ensure that only the process owners of the text server may access the files.

Staging table access policies

To identify changes that need to be applied to a text index, the primary key of modified rows (inserted, updated, deleted) is inserted into the staging table.

The primary key may be based on data columns of the base table that contain confidential data. By default, users with role SYSTS_ADM and SYSTS_MGR, and with some restrictions, SYSTS_USR, have at least read access to the content of staging tables. Access and audit policies for the base table are not inherited for the staging table. If further restrictions for access to a particular staging table are needed, the security administrator will need to revoke read privileges on the specific table for the roles and grant them to a user or a custom role who will manage the specific text index.

Stand-alone setup

The Db2® database instance uses TCP/IP to communicate with the stand-alone Db2 Text Search server. SSL or IBM Global Security Kit (GSKit) support are not available, however, encryption channels can be used through the stunnel program or SSH tunneling. Restrict access to your document repository and text search index files depending on your security requirements. The stand-alone text search server must be installed on computers with a secure network connection, behind a firewall to prevent unauthorized access to the text search indexes. Setting up TCP/IP access restriction to the stand-alone text search server ensures that it can only be accessed by the host on which the database server is installed.