Protection of the Security Audit Log against deletion


How to prevent erasure of log data

Hi SAP enthusiasts,

the Security Audit Log [SAL] contains information about important system events and should, therefore, better not get lost unintentionally!
Let’s see, how the Audit Log can be erased and what we can do to prevent this and maximize its protection.

The Audit Log is stored in log-files that are located in the file system (see parameter DIR_AUDIT) and is either rotated daily or when the current file is full (see parameter rsau/max_diskspace/per_file).

Access to these files is possible via kernel functionality (from within the SAP system) or on operating system level (e.g. via an external OS command). We’ll focus on access via the SAP application server and won’t take a deeper look at manipulations directly from OS level (i.e. from the command line).

Ways to delete the Security Audit Log

From inside the SAP system, three variants of deleting the SAL files exist.
Below we’ll check them and see, which measures exist to protect the logs.

Variant 1: SM18 (or function module RSAU_CLEAR_AUDIT_LOG or system function C_REMOVE)

SM18 is the SAP standard way of removing old SAL files.
The transaction is protected by an authorization check for S_ADMI_FCD with value AUDA (= AUDit log Administration). The minimum age of files to be erased is 3 days − a nice feature because an attacker cannot remove fresh logs and hide what he/she did moments ago.

Protection
SM18 is not really problematic… S_ADMI_FCD with value AUDA is a critical authorization, which nobody should be assigned to on production.

Diving a bit deeper…
A clever developer might try to copy the code that is responsible for the deletion to a customer report − fortunately, this does not work… see below:

REPORT.
WRITE 'SM18 (C_REMOVE):'.
 
DATA: errno  TYPE rsautypes-errno
    , errmsg TYPE rsautypes-errmsg.
 
CALL 'C_REMOVE' ID 'DIR'    FIELD '/usr/sap/[SID]/DVEBMGS00/log'
                ID 'FILE'   FIELD 'audit_20160425'
                ID 'GROUP'  FIELD 'AUDIT'
                ID 'ERRNO'  FIELD errno
                ID 'ERRMSG' FIELD errmsg.
 
IF sy-subrc = 0. WRITE: 'successful'.
ELSE.            WRITE: 'failed;', errmsg. " caller not registered
ENDIF.

⇒ This report always runs into an error, because the SAP kernel checks the program name that calls the C_REMOVE function against an internal whitelist; we’ll always get a “failed; caller not registered” message…

Variant 2: DELETE DATASET

A more sophisticated way of getting rid of audit log files is to simply delete them via the DELETE DATASET statement from within an ABAP report.

A simple example:

REPORT.
WRITE 'DELETE DATASET:'.
 
TRY.
    DELETE DATASET '/usr/sap/[SID]/DVEBMGS00/log/audit_20160425'.
 
    IF sy-subrc = 0. WRITE 'successful'.
    ELSE.            WRITE 'failed / not found'.
    ENDIF.
 
  CATCH cx_sy_file_authority.
    WRITE 'missing authorization'.
ENDTRY.

Basic protection
The kernel checks for S_DATASET authorizations each time a DELETE DATASET statement is executed (this cannot be prevented since the check takes place in the kernel).
The field ACTVT is checked for value 06 (delete) and the FILENAME field for the path of the file to be deleted.

Better protection
A check for authorization object S_PATH can be activated to implement additional protection for file system accesses. It is then evaluated after a successful S_DATASET check.

Alternatively, we can also prevent unauthorized log file deletion completely… even if a user has S_DATASET with all field values set to “*“!

For the additional check, the logic is as follows (see SAP Note 177702):

  • first, the system checks whether the SPTH table contains a PATH, which matches the start of the pathname of the log file that we want to delete
  • if an authorization group is set in the FS_BRGRU field, the system then performs an authorization check on S_PATH with ACTVT = 02 (write or delete)

Additionally, the table SPTH has two flags, which can further limit file access and overwrite the authorization checks on S_PATH and S_DATASET:

  • if FS_NOREAD has the value “X”, neither read nor write access is possible
  • and FS_NOWRITE = “X” prevents write access
SPTH Log File Protection

To effectively prevent Security Audit Log deletion, you can add the following entry to SPTH:

PATH = /usr/sap/[SID]/DVEBMGS00/log/audit_
FS_NOREAD = X
FS_NOWRITE = X

Afterward, no user will be able to read or modify the SAL log files – disregarding their authorizations!
Anyway, SM20 will continue to work, as the access therein is performed by the kernel.

Variant 3: External operating system command

The third variant does not use the SAP kernel to delete the file, but rather an OS command (in the following example we’ll use the Unix/Linux rm command).

The following report creates a new external command, executes it to delete the same audit log file as above and finally deletes the command.

Note
The creation and deletion of the command is logged via table logging for table SXPGCOSTAB… but at least at a first glance, we can hide what we did by deleting the command after execution…

REPORT.
WRITE 'External command (SM69):'.
 
DATA command TYPE sxpgcolist.
command-NAME      = 'Z_DEL_AUDITLOG'.
command-opsystem  = sy-opsys.
command-opcommand = 'rm'.
command-addpar    = 'X'.
 
CALL FUNCTION 'SXPG_COMMAND_INSERT'         " --- Create command
  EXPORTING
    command = command
  EXCEPTIONS
    OTHERS  = 1.
 
IF sy-subrc = 0. WRITE 'creation successful;'.
ELSE.            WRITE 'creation failed.'.
                 LEAVE PROGRAM.
ENDIF.
 
DATA exitcode TYPE extcmdexex-exitcode.
 
CALL FUNCTION 'SXPG_COMMAND_EXECUTE'        " --- Execute command
  EXPORTING
    commandname           = command-NAME
    additional_parameters = '/usr/sap/[SID]/DVEBMGS00/log/audit_20160425'
  IMPORTING
    exitcode              = exitcode
  EXCEPTIONS
    OTHERS                = 1.
 
IF sy-subrc = 0 AND exitcode = 0. WRITE 'execution successful;'.
ELSE.                             WRITE 'execution failed;'.
ENDIF.
 
DATA: BEGIN OF command_del.
        INCLUDE STRUCTURE sxpgcostab.
DATA:   sapcommand   TYPE sxpgcolist-sapcommand
    ,   TYPE(8)      TYPE c
    , END   OF command_del
    , rc             TYPE i.
 
command_del-NAME     = command-NAME.
command_del-opsystem = command-opsystem.
 
PERFORM command_delete(saplsxpt)            " --- Delete command
        USING    SPACE
        CHANGING command_del rc.
 
IF sy-subrc = 0 AND rc = 0. WRITE 'deletion successful.'.
ELSE.                       WRITE 'deletion failed.'.
ENDIF.

Of course, you could also create, execute and delete the command via transaction SM69.

Protection
The above method works fine if you have S_RZL_ADM (ACTVT = 01) for the creation of the command and S_LOG_COM authorizations for execution.
Unfortunately, the SPTH-protection from variant 2 does not work here.

If table logging is enabled (profile parameter rec/client), changes are recorded in table DBTABLOG and can be evaluated via transaction SCU3 (for table SXPGCOSTAB).

Bottom line

All three variants can be protected quite well via authorizations, so log deletion can be prevented by strictly controlling these authorizations.

Anyway high-privileged users – e.g. emergency users – still have access, so I suggest also implementing the SPTH-protection described in variant 2. 💡 It provides a good additional line of defense around the log files.

Please keep in mind that you should also take care of protecting table SPTH itself… 💡

Apart from the “access”-perspective, organizational measures should be implemented to make sure that malicious code – like to one above is – checked (and rejected) before a transport to production takes place!

So long!

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A note on SECPOL behavior


Howdy!

SECPOL pitfall

Currently, a lack of time prevents me from finishing a post, which is in the pipeline for weeks now. In the meantime, I’d like to quickly write about a behavior of Security Policies, which might lead to an unexpected situation, if you’re not aware of it (fortunately you will be).

Circumstances

Let us assume that you have hardened your system and set the password-related profile parameters login/min_password_lowercase = 1 and login/min_password_uppercase = 1. This forces users to include at least one lower- and one uppercase character in new passwords. The kernel default for both parameters is 0.
Additionally, you set the parameter login/min_password_lng = 10 to enforce a minimum password length of 10 characters.

Unfortunately, there is an RFC user on your system, which must – for whatever technical reason – not have a password longer than 8 characters. As you don’t want to lower the system setting, you choose to create a new SECPOL with just the attribute MIN_PASSWORD_LENGTH = 8 and leave the profile parameter as it is (= 10). The desired result is obviously to override the minimum password length with a lower value for just the one RFC user and stay with the more secure value for all other users.

(Possible) expectation

The SAP Help Portal says:
you create security policies with attributes, for which you explicitly do not want to use the default value.

My initial expectation was, that a SECPOL attribute overrides the corresponding profile parameter (in our example MIN_PASSWORD_LENGTH overrides login/min_password_lng) … and all other profile parameters, for which SECPOL attributes exist, stay as they are set in the profile.
So, login/min_password_lowercase could potentially be overridden by MIN_PASSWORD_LOWERCASE – but since we did not add it to our SECPOL, one could assume that the profile value stays intact.

Result

Security Policies do not override profile parameters – rather they replace them! All of them.
All profile parameters, for which a SECPOL attribute exists, are replaced – so if an attribute is not explicitly set in a SECPOL, the kernel default value is used! Not the profile parameter value.

SECPOL vs. Profile Parameters

The bottom line

If you’ve set any of the profile parameter values, which can be influenced by a Security Policy, you have to make sure that all those profile parameters are explicitly set again in all of your SECPOLs!
So, once you choose to make use of SECPOLs, you have to maintain all values at least twice: in RZ10 and in your Security Policy/ies… otherwise, you end up using default values by mistake.

Yep… unspectacular… but still interesting 🙂

Cheerio!

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New GitHub repository for REPOSRC decompressor


New GitHub repository

Hey.

Some time ago, I posted a small C++ program that decompresses the source code stored in table REPOSRC
(⇒ check this article).

It was never intended to be more than a proof of concept, but since many people showed interest in it (and found bugs), I decided to create a GitHub repository:

https://github.com/daberlin/sap-reposrc-decompressor/

It contains the history of my ancient CVS repository. So… if you find any bugs or want to help improve it — please go there and either create an issue or simply fork it and unleash the developer in you).

Bye!

» Update: The repository has been moved to https://gitlab.com/daberlin/sap-reposrc-decompressor

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