Set up APPC security

This group of articles discuss various aspects of setting up security for APPC sessions.

There are several aspects of security for an i5/OS™ system, communicating with each other using APPC and APPN:

Physical security surrounding the systems, communication lines, and display stations that can be configured.
Location security that verifies the identity of other systems in the network.
User security that verifies the identity and rights of users to issue commands on their local system and remote systems when you specify *NONE for the location password (LOCPWD) parameter during APPC configuration.
Resource security that controls user access to particular resources, such as confidential databases remote system when a session is being established.
Session-level security which is achieved by specifying a password on the LOCPWD parameter during configuration. The i5/OS system uses the password to validate the identity of the remote system when a session is being established.

When the system is using level 10 security, APPC connects to the network as a nonsecure system. The i5/OS system does not validate the identity of a remote system when a session is being established and does not require transaction security on incoming program start requests.

If the i5/OS system is the remote system and is using level 20 or above, APPC connects to the network as a secure system.

Restrict APPC sessions
Use object authority to control access to APPC sessions.
Target system assignment of user profiles for jobs
When a user requests an APPC job on another system, the request has a mode name associated with it. The mode name might come from the user’s request, or it might be a default value from the network attributes of the source system.
Display station passthrough options
Display station passthrough is an example of an application that uses APPC communications. You can use display station passthrough to sign on to another system that is connected to your system through a network.
Avoid unexpected device assignments
When a failure occurs on an active device, the system attempts to recover. In some circumstances, when the connection is broken, another user can unintentionally reestablish the session that had the failure.
Control remote commands and batch jobs
Several options are available to help you control which remote commands and jobs can run on your system.
Evaluate your APPC configuration
You can use the Print Communications Security (PRTCMNSEC) command or menu options to print the security-relevant values in your APPC configuration.

Parent topic: Set up network security