Challenges in authorization management
Our services in the area of SAP authorizations
In many distributed organisations, the Profit Centre is used to map out the distributed units. However, this was only possible for FI with additional programming. In integrated data flows in SAP ERP, the sending application usually does not check the authorization objects of the receiving application. Financial Accounting (FI) in SAP does not check permissions for cost centres and profit centres. However, depending on the case of use, this may be necessary, e.g. if distributed entities are to operate as small enterprises within the enterprise and only collect and view data for this particular unit at a time. With the introduction of the new general ledger, SAP has technically merged the financial accounting and the profit centre account, so that the question of the inclusion of profit centre allowances in FIs becomes even more important.
A new transaction has been added to evaluate the system trace only for permission checks, which you can call STAUTHTRACE using the transaction and insert via the respective support package named in SAP Note 1603756. This is a short-term trace that can only be used as a permission trace on the current application server and clients. In the basic functions, it is identical to the system trace in transaction ST01; Unlike the system trace, however, only permission checks can be recorded and evaluated here. You can limit the recording to a specific user. You can also use the trace to search only for permission errors. The evaluation is similar to the evaluation of the system trace in the transaction ST01. In transaction STAUTHTRACE, however, you can also evaluate for specific authorization objects or for specific permission check return codes (i.e. after positive or negative permission checks). You can also filter multiple entries.
Check for permissions on the old user group when assigning a new user group to a user
Do you want to customise the settings for the Session Manager, Profile Generator and User Care? Use the parameters in the customising tables SSM_CID, SSM_CUST, SSM_COL, PRGN_CUST and USR_CUST. Here we show you the settings for the Session Manager, the Profile Generator or the User Care. How do I merge the user menu from different roles or disable it altogether? How can the generated passwords be adapted to your needs? How can you automatically perform user master matching after role assignments via the PFCG transaction? And how can you prevent assignments from being transported from users to roles? We'll show you how to make these settings.
In an SAP® system, authorizations are not the only focus of the auditor. Essential system parameters are also part of the audit. For this reason, it should also be ensured in advance that all parameters are set up in accordance with the company's specifications. The parameters concerned are all those that ensure system and client security. Among other things, it must be ensured that the production system is protected against any kind of changes and therefore no direct development is possible.
The possibility of assigning authorizations during the go-live can be additionally secured by using "Shortcut for SAP systems".
This program is also available via the PFCG under the system tab "Utilities" and category "Mass adjustment".
You can do this by assigning permissions through the RESPAREA field, which is used in certain authorization objects in the controlling.