ID-Archive Overview
In a typical enterprise-scale organization there are hundreds of
servers and thousands of workstations. There is usually a single, shared
administrator-class password for every type of device. For
example, one password may be used for each workstation of a given
type or for every server with a given configuration.
This is convenient for data center and client support staff: if
they need to perform maintenance or an upgrade on a workstation
or server, they know how to log in.
Such static and well-known administrator passwords create both operational challenges and security problems:
- When administrator login IDs are shared by multiple IT users,
there is no audit log mapping administrative changes to individual
IT staff. If an administrator makes a change to a system that
causes a malfunction, it can be difficult to determine who caused the
problem.
- When the same administrator ID and password exists on many systems, it is hard to coordinate password changes. As a result, administrator passwords are rarely changed and are often known to ex-employees.
The obvious solution to security problems that arise because of static and shared administrator passwords is to eliminate static and well known administrator passwords. Doing this can be technically challenging, however:
- There are thousands of administrator passwords:
Clearly some automation is required to manage them.
- There are passwords on many kinds of systems:
The automation must include many integrations, with different types of systems (Windows, Unix, SAP, mainframe, Oracle, etc.).
- The majority of administrator passwords are on workstations.
Workstation passwords present special challenges:
- Workstations may be powered down.
- Workstations may be disconnected from the network.
- Workstations may be hidden from the central network infrastructure by firewalls and network address translation (NAT) devices.
- Connectivity to target systems.
- Target systems may not be up 100% of the time.
- Target systems may not be reachable by the password management systems. Specifically, they may be on different network segments, often blocked off from the password management system by one or more firewalls.
- Secure, reliable storage.
Once automation is implemented to regularly change passwords, technical challenges regarding their storage must be addressed. The password storage system must:
- Be secure.
An insecure storage system, if compromised, would allow an
intruder to gain administrative access to every device in
the IT infrastructure.
- Be reliable.
A disk crash or facility outage affecting the password storage system
would make every administrator ID unavailable.
- Include fine-grained access controls.
Only the right administrators should get access to the
right passwords, after proving their identity.
- Log Credential Access. Access to administrative credentials must be logged, to create This creates accountability.
- Be secure.
An insecure storage system, if compromised, would allow an
intruder to gain administrative access to every device in
the IT infrastructure.
These challenges are not trivial -- a custom software development project may get some of them wrong, with possibly disastrous consequences.
To ensure robust management of administrator passwords, it makes sense to acquire and deploy an expertly built application for managing administrator passwords. That application is ID-Archive.