Home
Security
You can secure your Informix® database server and the data that is stored in your Informix databases. You can encrypt data, secure connections, control user privileges and access, and audit data security.
Security in HCL Informix®
The Informix® Security Guide documents methods for keeping your data secure by preventing unauthorized viewing and altering of data or database objects, including how to use the secure-auditing facility of the database server.
Securing data
Connection security
You can administer the security of the connections to the database server by using authentication and authorization processes.
Single sign-on
Single sign-on is an authentication feature that bypasses the requirement to provide user name and password after a user logs into the client computer's operating system.
Kerberos authentication
For single sign-on, the user login process and authentication must employ a Kerberos 5 network infrastructure, including a dedicated Key Distribution Center computer.

Security
You can secure your Informix® database server and the data that is stored in your Informix databases. You can encrypt data, secure connections, control user privileges and access, and audit data security.
- Security in HCL Informix®
  The Informix® Security Guide documents methods for keeping your data secure by preventing unauthorized viewing and altering of data or database objects, including how to use the secure-auditing facility of the database server.
  - Securing data
    - HCL Informix® directory security
      utilities and product directories are secure by default.
    - Network data encryption
      Use network encryption to encrypt data transmitted between server and client, and between server and other server.
    - Column-level encryption
      You can use column-level encryption to store sensitive data in an encrypted format. After encrypting sensitive data, such as credit card numbers, only users who can provide a secret password can decrypt the data.
    - Connection security
      You can administer the security of the connections to the database server by using authentication and authorization processes.
      - Authentication mechanisms
        You can configure the Informix® server authentication mechanisms to meet varying requirements, such as different security methods required for local and remote connections, database access by users without operating system accounts on the servers host computer, and non-root installation.
      - Internal users (UNIX™, Linux™)
        The DBSA can grant database access to users that do not authenticate on the OS of the host computer by mapping PAM-authenticated users to OS-level entities or by configuring the server to perform internal authentication.
      - Guest account (Windows™)
        Disable the Windows™ Guest account to prevent anonymous logins.
      - Trusted-context objects and trusted connections
        You can use trusted-context objects and trusted connections to increase system performance and security within a three-tier application model.
      - Pluggable authentication modules (UNIX™ or Linux™)
        A Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) is a well-defined framework for supporting different authentication modules that were originally developed by Sun Microsystems. PAM is supported in both 32- and 64-bit modes on Solaris, Linux™, HP-UX and AIX®.
      - LDAP authentication support on Windows™
      - Authentication module deployment
      - Simple password encryption
        The simple password communication support module (SPWDCSM) provides password encryption.
      - Single sign-on
        Single sign-on is an authentication feature that bypasses the requirement to provide user name and password after a user logs into the client computer's operating system.
        Kerberos authentication
        For single sign-on, the user login process and authentication must employ a Kerberos 5 network infrastructure, including a dedicated Key Distribution Center computer.
        Setting up an SSO authentication environment
        Establishing SSO authentication for Informix® involves configuration of a secured Key Distribution Center computer and connectivity files, along with generation of client and server service principals.
        Clients supporting SSO
        Client programs that are available in the can connect to Informix® with SSO.
        Preparing the Informix® DBMS for Kerberos authentication
        Configure your login process and user authentication to function with a Kerberos 5 mechanism before you set up Informix® for single sign-on.
        Configuring the HCL Informix® instance for SSO
        Complete the following tasks for the server side of your system to enable SSO functionality with HCL Informix®:
        Configuring ESQL/C and ODBC drivers for SSO
        The steps for preparing the SQLHOSTS information and the Generic Security Services (GSS) CSM configuration file for ESQL/C and ODBC and a client computer are similar to the corresponding server-side setup procedures.
        Configuring JDBC Driver for SSO
        When JDBC Driver is the client for SSO, use the DriverManager.getConnection() method, with an SSO connection property set to the Informix® service principal.
      - Securing local connections to a host
        The database server administrator (DBSA) can use the SECURITY_LOCALCONNECTION configuration parameter to set up security checking for local connections with the same host.
      - Limiting denial-of-service flood attacks
        Informix® has multiple listener threads (listen_authenticate) to limit denial-of-service (DOS) attacks.
    - Discretionary access control
      Discretionary access control verifies whether the user who is attempting to perform an operation has been granted the required privileges to perform that operation.
    - Label-Based Access Control
      You can use label-based access control (LBAC), an implementation of multi-level security (MLS), to control who has read access and who has write access to individual rows and columns of data.
  - Auditing data security

Kerberos authentication protocol

For single sign-on, the user login process and authentication must employ a Kerberos 5 network infrastructure, including a dedicated Key Distribution Center computer.

A complete description of the Kerberos security protocol and how to configure it specifically for your system, are beyond the scope of this documentation. This topic orients users new to Kerberos implementations to the starting points for gathering required information.

Overview of Kerberos

Kerberos is a third-party network authentication protocol that employs a system of shared secret keys to securely authenticate a user in an unsecured network environment. The application server and client exchange encrypted keys (tickets), instead of a clear-text user ID and password pair, to establish a user's credentials on the network. A separate server called the Key Distribution Center (KDC) issues a ticket after verifying the validity of a user login.

Each user, or principal in Kerberos terms, possesses a private encryption key that is shared with the KDC. Collectively, the set of principals and computers registered with a KDC are known as a realm.

An encrypted service ticket stores a user's credentials. The database server unencrypts the ticket to verify that the credentials are associated with a user login authorized for access. While a valid service ticket exists on the network, the Informix® instance authorizes logged-in user access to the DBMS. The Kerberos protocol has the following security features:

Service tickets exist on the network for a limited duration.
Only the client and the server can unencrypt these tickets, so data is protected if the tickets are intercepted from the network.
Input of user name and password is limited to the initial login session, reducing the risk of possible interception of clear-text credentials.

Administration of user IDs is simplified because the KDC hosts a central repository for principals. However, the disadvantage of this centralization is that it creates for a single point-of-attack by hackers. You must weigh Kerberos' advantages against this potential threat for your own environment.