SAP Data Analytics
What to do when the auditor comes - Part 2: Authorizations and parameters
In the foreground, important SAP reports on the subject of role and authorization administration were presented. Since these and the entire SAP system are known to be based on ABAP coding, the analysis of the source code is just as important, especially when using in-house developments. These in-house developments often present serious security vulnerabilities because they have insufficient authorization checks in the coding. To search for explicit strings and to categorize the in-house developments accordingly, the report RS_ABAP_SOURCE_SCAN can be used. This allows existing programs in the backend to be explicitly checked for specific check patterns by the authorization administrator and any errors to be corrected by the relevant developers. Authorization-relevant check patterns for such a scan are, for example, "AUTHORITY-CHECK" or SQL statements such as SELECT, UPDATE or DELETE. The former checks whether authorization checks are present in the source code at all. The check for Open SQL patterns analyzes the code structure for direct SELECT, MODIFY or INSERT statements that must be avoided or protected on the authorization side. The best practice measure in this case is to use SAP BAPIs. The preventive best practice would be to involve developers and authorization administrators equally during the conceptual design of the custom development.
As part of the use of a HANA database, you should protect both the execution of HANA database functions as well as the reading or altering access to the data stored in the database by appropriate permission techniques. Essential to the permission technique are database objects such as tables and views - which allow access to the stored data - as well as executable procedures and users. The specific HANA-specific permissions assigned to a user are referred to as privileges in the HANA context.
Excursus Special feature for authorizations for FIORI Apps under S/4HANA
Now the SAP system is basically able to encrypt emails. However, the system still lacks the recipient's public key. You can manage the required public key information in the Trust Manager's address book. You can find the address book in the Transaction STRUST menu under Certificate > Address Book. Here you can import individual certificates by selecting the corresponding certificate in Certificate > Import Certificate. To get the certificates for all relevant users in this address book via a mass import, use the example programme Z_IMPORT_CERTIFICATES appended in SAP Note 1750161 as a template for a custom programme.
You can maintain the SE97 transaction to determine whether or not a transaction should start at origin. The information in this transaction comes from the TCDCOUPLES table and is included. You have the possibility to amend or supplement the proposals listed here. When the CALL TRANSACTION statement is invoked, additional transaction code pairings are written to the TCDCOUPLES table by activating the authorisation trace through the auth/authorisation_trace profile parameter. The check mark indicates whether the test is carried out. By default, it is set to unkempt after performing the trace. If the check mark is set to YES, the transaction startup permission is performed with the S_TCODE object. If applicable, other permissions maintained by the SE93 transaction are also checked when the transaction is called.
The possibility of assigning authorizations during the go-live can be additionally secured by using "Shortcut for SAP systems".
The SAP standard allows you to evaluate the statistical usage data via a standard function block.
The fact that the buffer is not up-to-date is recognised by the fact that existing permissions that are not in the buffer are marked in the transaction SU56 with the note "In the root data but not in the user buffer".