This chapter provides some background information about privileged accounts and describes how to work with those accounts using the Oracle Privileged Account Manager Console.
This chapter includes the following sections:
You can also manage Oracle Privileged Account Manager accounts from the command line or by using Oracle Privileged Account Manager's RESTful interface.
An account on a target is considered privileged in a deployment when that account
You cannot create accounts in, or delete accounts from, your environment by using Oracle Privileged Account Manager. Oracle Privileged Account Manager only manages existing accounts that were provisioned using other mechanisms.
When you "add" an account in Oracle Privileged Account Manager, you are creating a reference to that account. In effect, you are registering the account and asking Oracle Privileged Account Manager to manage it. When you "remove" the account from Oracle Privileged Account Manager, you are only removing the reference to that account.
Administrators determine which accounts are privileged within a particular deployment, and they must configure Oracle Privileged Account Manager to manage those accounts.
You must be an Oracle Privileged Account Manager administrator with the Security Administrator Admin Role to add and manage accounts.
Oracle Privileged Account Manager enables you to manage both system and application accounts.
This section contains the following topics:
Oracle Privileged Account Manager's primary purpose is to manage privileged system accounts on a supported target system. Oracle Privileged Account Manager does not mandate what constitutes a privileged system account — it can manage any account on a target system. Administrators are responsible for identifying which accounts are privileged. A privileged account is typically a system account that allows a user to perform administration tasks.
Privileged accounts are suitable for management through Oracle Privileged Account Manager if they are used and shared by multiple individuals in the organization and administrators are required to track the use of these accounts.
Administrators perform the following steps to register an account as a privileged account to be managed by Oracle Privileged Account Manager:
Applications use application accounts to connect to target systems at run time. Traditionally, administrators set up these accounts once during installation and then they are forgotten. Consequently, application accounts can potentially cause hidden vulnerabilities in your deployment. For example, passwords might become less secure over time because they were created using outdated policies or commonly used deployment passwords might be compromised.
Oracle Privileged Account Manager enables you to better manage application accounts. In particular, for applications that store their application accounts in the Credential Store. These applications consume the account credentials at run time from the Credential Store through the Credential Store Framework.
For example, because an application account is essentially a special version of a system account, you can register an application account in Oracle Privileged Account Manager as described in Section 8.1.1, "Managing System Accounts." You can then add the corresponding CSF mappings for every application that depends on that account, which is how CSF uniquely identifies a credential stored within CSF, and how an application finds its credential in CSF. For more information about CSF mapping, refer to "Guidelines for the Map Name" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Application Security Guide .
If you register an account's CSF mappings with Oracle Privileged Account Manager, then every time the account's password changes, Oracle Privileged Account Manager can update the CSF entries that correspond to the registered mappings to reflect the new password and the applications continue to work without service interruption.
Oracle Privileged Account Manager updates, or synchronizes, CSF only when a password change occurs. Refer to Section 17.3, "Integrating with the Credential Store Framework" for information about integrating Oracle Privileged Account Manager with CSF.
You can also use the plug-in framework to synchronize passwords to non-CSF application wallets. You can write a plug-in on the passwordcycle and resetaccountpassword operations for the Server resource to capture all password update operations, and then add custom logic to synchronize the resource to your application wallet. Refer to Section 11.2.7, "Supported Operations and Timings" for more information.
Additionally, you can apply a Password Policy to these applications that periodically cycles the account password. Cycling the password ensures that the application accounts are always compliant with the latest corporate policies and they remain secure. Oracle Privileged Account Manager performs this task with no service interruption.
Finally, its useful to note that Oracle Privileged Account Manager can support an account as both a system account (shared and used by multiple end-users) and as an application account (only used by an application at run time) at the same time. In this configuration, a human end-user who's been granted access can "check out" the application account to perform manual administrative operations as that application without disrupting application functionality.
Oracle Privileged Account Manager enables you to specify whether an account is shared or not shared .
Because unshared accounts are more secure, Oracle recommends that you designate an account as shared only if there are compelling business reasons to do so. If sharing is necessary, be sure to read Section 2.4.2, "Securing Shared Accounts."
If you configure a shared account, be aware that a user can still use the password after checking in the account. Oracle Privileged Account Manager does not reset the account password until the last user checks in the account.
This is a security limitation for shared accounts.
Accounts are always added to a target, so you must add a target object before you can add an account. Refer to Section 6.2, "Adding Targets to Oracle Privileged Account Manager" for more information.
Never use the same account as the service account and as a privileged account to be managed by Oracle Privileged Account Manager. Refer to Chapter 7, "Working with Service Accounts" for information about service accounts.
You can add a new privileged acc ount from either of the following pages:
From the Accounts Page
To add an account by using the Accounts page,
From the Targets Page
To add an account by using the Targets page,
In both cases, when you click Add , the Account: Untitled page displays with the following subtabs:
Only the General tab is active at this point.
Use these subtabs and the instructions provided in the following sections to finish adding the account:
To add an account you must complete the Step 1: Set Target and Step 2: Add Account sections on the General tab as follows:
Set the Account
Note: Wildcard searches (for example, using percent ( % ) or underscore ( _ ) symbols) are not supported in the Set Account dialog because you perform search account operations against real targets.
For example, if you know the account name begins with "s," you can type an s into the Account Name field and click the Search button.
Note: When you add privileged accounts to a lockbox target, a Password field is also displayed in the Console. Oracle Privileged Account Manager does not manage accounts on lockbox targets; therefore it cannot reset the passwords on those accounts. You must provide the password to be used when users check out those privileged accounts. For more information about lockbox targets, refer to Section 6.1, "What Are Targets?"
Note: You must not add the target's service account as a privileged account to be managed by Oracle Privileged Account Manager.
Note: Oracle Privileged Account Manager automatically assigns the Default Password Policy to new accounts. However, Oracle Privileged Account Manager administrators with the Security Administrator or the User Manager Admin Role can create new policies. You can leave the default policy set or choose a different policy from the Password Policy drop-down menu. For more information about policies, refer to Chapter 9, "Working with Policies."
Note: The Grants, Credential Store Framework, and Checkout History tabs do not become active until you save the new account information.
In addition, if you are an administrator with the User Manager Admin Role, you can use the Force check-in option to check in accounts. Refer to Forcing a Check-In.
You can now add grantees and CSF mappings to the account. Continue to Section 8.2.2, "Adding Grantees" and Section 8.2.3, "Adding CSF Mappings" for more information.
This section provides instructions for adding grantees to a privileged account.
To associate users and groups with a new account, select the Grants tab and then complete the following steps:
Removing a user or group grant from an account does not automatically cancel all existing checkouts.
When grantees check out an account, they are guaranteed access to that account until one of the following events occur:
However, after the account is checked in, the grantee cannot check out that account again unless an administrator re-adds them as a grantee.
Oracle Privileged Account Manager enables you to securely store and synchronize account credentials with the Oracle Credential Store Framework (CSF). This capability is useful for managing the lifecycle of application passwords stored in CSF.
When you configure CSF synchronization for an account, Oracle Privileged Account Manager changes the account password based on the assigned Usage Policy.
Oracle Privileged Account Manager updates, or synchronizes, CSF only when a password change occurs.
For more information about CSF and how Oracle Privileged Account Manager manages CSF credentials, refer to Section 17.3, "Integrating with the Credential Store Framework."
To add CSF mappings to an account, complete the following steps:
You can search for accounts by using one or more of the following parameters:
To search for an account,
Note: You can use the View menu, located above the Search Results table, to manage how the search results are displayed in the table. Refer to the table in Section 4.3.6, "Working with a Search Results Table" for more information.
Opening an account enables you to view or edit the configuration parameters for that account.
You can open privileged accounts from any Search Results table containing an Account Name link. For example,
The Account: AccountName page opens. From this page, depending on your Admin Role, you can view and configure account settings related to the associated target, grants, Credential Store Framework, and checkouts.
Oracle Privileged Account Manager enables grantees to check out an account in two ways:
You can also use the Oracle Privileged Account Manager command line tool or the RESTful interface to check out accounts.
Any administrator or end user can check out a privileged account password if they have been granted access to that account. (Refer to Chapter 10, "Working with Grantees" for more information.)
You must be an administrator with the Security Administration Admin Role to modify or remove an account.
Privileged accounts are not shared by default, which means when one user checks out the account, it becomes unavailable to other users and prevents conflicting actions. However, administrators can configure shared accounts, which enables multiple users to check out the account at the same time. (Refer to Section 8.1.3, "Understanding Sharing Accounts" for more information.)
The steps for checking out a password are as follows:
Note: To see if an account is already checked out, click the account name. When the Account: AccountName page opens, you can review the Current Checkouts table to see who checked out the account, what type of checkout it was (password or session), when the account was checked out, the checkout expiration date, and view a recording (if available).
Privileged sessions provide an extra level of security for privileged accounts on UNIX targets. Through privileged sessions, a grantee can access the granted account without ever knowing the actual account credentials.
Session checkout is not available for other target types.
Any administrator or end user can check out a privileged account session if they have been granted access to that account and if the Usage Policy associated with the account allows session checkouts. (Refer to Chapter 10, "Working with Grantees" and Section 9.3.3, "Modifying the Default Usage Policy" for more information.)
To check out a session,
Note: If you already know to how to establish the session using an SSH client, and you know the Oracle Privileged Account Manager server host, port, UNIX target, and UNIX account name, proceed to step 3.
Account Name: opamuser1 Target Name: sample-unix SSH Port: 1222 Instruction: ssh -p port> opamuser>:targetname>: accountname>@sessionmgrhost> Use opam password on password prompt.
The preceding example uses default Oracle Privileged Account Manager connection settings and instructions. Oracle Privileged Account Manager administrators can configure this information to whatever is appropriate for their own environments.
prompt> ssh –p 1222 opamuser1:target_system:user1@sessionmgrhost
A message displays stating that you are authenticated with partial success.
You do not have to perform any special steps to check in a checked out session. If you use the procedure described in Section 8.6, "Checking In Privileged Accounts," then the account is checked back in regardless of the checkout type (password or session).
Any administrator or end user can check in their checked-out accounts by using the steps described in Regular Check-In.
Administrators with the User Manager Admin Role can force an account check-in (check in privileged accounts that have been checked out by other users) when necessary. Use the steps described in Forcing a Check-In.
In either case, you use the same steps to check in an account password or an account session.
To check in a checked out privileged account:
Forcing a Check-In
To force an account check in:
You can also use the Oracle Privileged Account Manager command line tool or the RESTful interface to check-in accounts.
If necessary, administrators can view a recording, in transcript format, of the actions taken by the user during an account checkout (password or session).
The Session Monitoring Update Interval in seconds setting on the Session Manager Configuration Page controls how often on-going session transcripts are updated. Refer to step 2 in Section 5.3.3, "Managing the Oracle Privileged Session Manager Properties" for more information.
The following table describes the different transcript types, where you can access these recordings, and which Admin Roles are required to view the transcripts:
On-going session transcripts
The account's Current Checkouts table
Security Admin or User Manager
Expired session transcripts
The account's Checkout History tab
Security Admin or User Manager
Expired session transcripts
Checkout History Report page
The next three sections provide instructions for accessing these recordings.
From a Current Checkouts Table
From the Checkout History Tab
From the Checkout History Page
Oracle Privileged Account Manager provides the following options for managing privileged account passwords:
You can also perform these password management tasks by using the Oracle Privileged Account Manager command line tool or REST API.
Oracle Privileged Account Manager audits password management actions to keep track of password access.
The procedures for showing and resetting a target's service account password are different from the procedures described in this section. Refer to Section 7.3, "Managing Service Account Passwords" for information.
If necessary, you can view a password in clear text for an account that you have checked out by using the Show Password option. For example, if you forget a password, you can use this feature to view the password again.
Any user can review passwords for accounts they have checked out. However, you cannot access passwords after the account is checked back in or view passwords for accounts that are checked out by other users. Attempts to do so will cause an error.
Administrators with the Security Administration Admin Role, who can access all system and target service accounts, can use this feature to view current the password for both checked out and checked in privileged accounts.
From the My Checkouts Page
You can access the Show Password option from the My Checkouts page as follows:
From the Accounts Page
Administrators with the Security Administration or User Manager Admin Role can access the Show Password option as follows:
Note: For most users, if they try to view the password for an account that has already been checked back in, an error will result. However, if you are an administrator with the Security Administrator or User Manager Admin Role, you can use this command to reset a password for both checked out and checked-in accounts.
Use the Password History option to view the password history for an account.
You must be an administrator with the Security Administration Admin Role to view the password history for a privileged account.
To view a privileged account's password history,
If necessary, you can manually reset the existing password for an account that you have checked out by using the Reset Password option.
If Security Administrators do not want to use randomized password generation, they can manually set a password of their choosing. For example, administrators might prefer to set a simple, easy-to-type password for one time use, such as during a system upgrade.
To reset an account password, use the following steps
Note: For most users, if they try resetting the password for an account that has already been checked back in, an error will result. However, if you are an administrator with the Security Administrator Admin Role, you can use this command to reset a password for both checked out and checked-in accounts.
Select the account row number and then click Reset Password .
The Reset Password dialog displays and provides the following information about the account password:
This dialog also contains a New Password field.
You can remove a privileged account from Oracle Privileged Account Manager by using the Search Accounts page or the Targets page.
When you remove a privileged account, you remove all information about the account that is stored in Oracle Privileged Account Manager.
Before removing a privileged account, it is critical that you first capture all relevant information from that account. For example, save the current password associated with that privileged account.
From the Search Accounts Page
To remove an account from the Search Accounts page,
Locate the account to remove.
From the Target Page
To remove an account from a target,
Locate the target from which you want to remove the account.