Introduction

Attention:
  • Conformance to the requirements of the Common Criteria is determined solely by an independent evaluation and certification by accredited organizations and signatory government agencies.

    Start of changeThe SC24-6232-02 edition of this book has been certified to be compliant with the Common Criteria. That edition can be downloaded from this URL:End of change

    https://www.vm.ibm.com/library/720pdfs/72632302.pdf

    Start of changeThe SC24-6232-03 edition of this book has been certified to be compliant with the NIAP Virtualization Protection Profile (PP_BASE_VIRTUALIZATION_V1.0). That edition can be downloaded from this URL:End of change

    Start of changehttps://www.vm.ibm.com/library/720pdfs/72632303.pdfEnd of change

    Start of changeThe site that controls and maintains this document, IBM z/VM 7.2 PDF files, uses HTTPS to assure transmission of its contents.End of change

  • Refer to IBM z/VM Security and Integrity Resources for a link to current evaluation plans and status.

  • z/VM 7.1 is designed to comply with the same Common Criteria requirements as were successfully evaluated for z/VM 6.4.

  • z/VM 6.4 was evaluated against the requirements of the Common Criteria Operating System Protection Profile (OSPP), BSI-CC-PP-0067, Version 2.0 (dated 2010-06-10), including the extended packages of OSPP:
    • Virtualization (OSPP-VIRT), Version 2.0
    • Labeled Security (OSPP-LS), Version 2.0

    This protection profile was designed as a replacement for the discontinued Controlled Access Protection Profile (CAPP). It takes into account today's environments, in which networked systems often process specialized tasks, use cryptographic services, and provide distributed security services.

  • The z/VM system must be configured in a Single System Image (SSI) configuration, and must have been created using the IBM-provided installation instructions for SSI configurations.

The Common Criteria was developed by several national security standards organizations in the United States and other countries, in concert with the International Organization for Standards (ISO). Common Criteria Version 2.1 is now formally recognized as ISO 15408, a world standard for security specifications and evaluations.

For more on Common Criteria, see The Common Criteria Portal.

An integral part of the Common Criteria is the Protection Profile (PP), an implementation-independent set of security requirements and objectives for a category of products or systems which meet similar needs for IT security.

For more on protection profiles, see National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP).

The Target of Evaluation (TOE) is that part of the product or system which is subject to evaluation. The TOE security threats, objectives, requirements, and summary specification of security functions and assurance measures together form the primary inputs to the Security Target (ST), which is used by the evaluators as the basis for evaluation.

The Common Criteria has provided seven predefined assurance packages, on a rising scale of assurance, known as Evaluation Assurance Levels (EALs). These provide balanced groupings of assurance components that are intended to be generally applicable. Not all government schemas issue EALs, and not all Protection Profiles include them.

Note that the evaluated configuration requires that the RACF Security Server feature of z/VM be enabled and used. It also requires that the Single System Image function (previously a feature of z/VM) be used.