SAP FICO Authorizations
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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.
It is important that after the AUTHORITY-CHECK OBJECT command is called, the return code in SY-SUBRC is checked. This must be set to 0; only then a jump is allowed.
WHY ACCESS CONTROL
You can assign a Table or Care View to a table through the SE11 transaction or SE54 transaction. This mapping is defined as a customising setting and therefore remains in place after a release change. You can assign a table to a table permission group by using the SE11 transaction by selecting your table in the start image and pressing the Display button.
The first line defines that access to all files is forbidden unless other settings have been made for them in the other lines. The asterisk (*) is in the first place here and in this case for all files and paths. If the asterisk is in a different position, it is interpreted as part of the file name, which is not allowed in Microsoft Windows, for example. In our example table, setting the switches FS_NOREAD = X and FS_NOWRITE = X for all paths prohibits reading and writing. This makes the table a white list. This is preferable to a black list for security reasons. SPTH, on the other hand, becomes a Black List if you remove the first line with PATH = * in our example or if you do not set any of the switches FS_NOREAD, FS_NOWRITE or FS_BRGRU. The second line with PATH = /tmp allows read and write access for all files starting with /tmp, similar to a permission value /tmp*, as an exception to the access ban defined in the first line for all files and paths. This setting is not limited to subdirectories, but includes, for example, all files whose name starts with /tmp-xy. The third line with PATH = /tmp/myfiles defines a permission group with FS_BRGRU = FILE, triggering the subsequent permission check on the S_PATH object. The SAVEFLAG = X switch defines that these files will be included in a backup procedure; however, this is not relevant for the permission award.
Authorizations can also be assigned via "Shortcut for SAP systems".
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Even more critical is the assignment of the comprehensive SAP® standard profile SAP_ALL, which contains almost all rights in the system.