SM14 Update administration
What does an SAP administrator need to be able to do?
Daily checks are still commonplace for many SAP customers today; with Avantra, they are a thing of the past. These are manual checks that a bot can perform hundreds of times each day. Similarly, a bot can create incidents or notifications when something goes wrong.
User authentication is usually performed by entering a user name and password. This information is called user credentials and should only be known to the user, so that no third party can gain access to the system under a false identity. This post explains how a user's password protection can be circumvented and how to prevent it. SAP system legacy data The login data of a user, including password, are saved in the USR02 database table. However, the password is not in plain text, but encrypted as a hash value. For each user there are not only one but up to three generated password hashes. Different algorithms are used to calculate these values, but only the Salted SHA1 can be considered sufficiently safe. Table deduction USR02 The secure password hash is located in the fifth column of the pictured table deduction with the heading Password hash value. The corresponding data field in the column is called PWDSALTEDHASH. Weak Password Hash Risks You have a good and working permission concept that ensures that no processes or data can be manipulated or stolen. A potential attacker now has the ability to read out your database with the password hashes. The hash values are calculated using password crackers, which are available on the Internet at home, and the attacker now has a long list of user credentials. To damage your system, the user will now search for the appropriate permissions and perform the attack under a false identity. Identifying the actual attacker is virtually impossible. Check if your system is vulnerable too Your system generates the weak hash values if the login/password_downwards_compatibility profile parameter has an unequal value of 0.
SAP technologies
Due to the variety of tasks and the high complexity, I find my job extremely exciting. There are very many constellations of SAP systems and databases. Each installation, migration and update brings new aspects and challenges. It is precisely these challenges that are important to me, so that I can continue to learn and develop professionally on a daily basis.
In transaction PFUD (see image above), you can perform the user match manually for all roles (or selected roles). You can choose between the matchup types Profile Matchup, Matchup of Indirect Assignments from Composite Roles, and Matchup HR Organizational Management. According to SAP documentation, the matchups differ as follows: Profile Matchup: "The program compares the currently valid user assignments of the selected single roles with the assignments of the associated generated profiles and makes any necessary adjustments to the profile assignments. Matching indirect assignments from composite roles: User assignments to composite roles result in indirect assignments for the single roles contained in the composite role. This match type matches the indirect assignments of the selected single roles to the user assignments of all composite roles that contain the single roles. If the selection set contains composite roles, the comparison takes place for all single roles contained in it. HR Organizational Management comparison: This comparison type updates the indirect assignments of all selected single and composite roles that are linked to elements of HR Organizational Management. The HR adjustment is inactive and cannot be selected if no active plan version exists or if a global deactivation has been made by setting the Customizing switch HR_ORG_ACTIVE = NO in table PRGN_CUST. Furthermore, the option "Perform cleanup" is interesting, which can be selected independently of the three adjustment types and does not refer to the role selection. The Perform Cleanup function can be used to remove residual data that resulted from incomplete deletion of roles and the associated generated profiles.
For administrators, a useful product - "Shortcut for SAP Systems" - is available in the SAP basis area.
At times, the user context may exceed the value of abap/heaplimit.
The website www.sap-corner.de offers many useful information about SAP basis.
This includes a template for a revision-proof and comprehensible, written authorisation concept.