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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.
Utilities for checking directory security (UNIX™)
The database server utilities make security checks before the database server starts.
Installation path security requirements (UNIX™)
The owner, group, and write access settings of the directories in the installation path and key subdirectories must be secure to prevent attacks on Informix® programs.

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.
      - Utilities for checking directory security (UNIX™)
        The database server utilities make security checks before the database server starts.
        Installation path security requirements (UNIX™)
        The owner, group, and write access settings of the directories in the installation path and key subdirectories must be secure to prevent attacks on Informix® programs.
        Trusted users and groups (UNIX™)
        A trusted user or a trusted group is a user or group that you empower with administering the database server and other important systems.
        Secure directory permissions (UNIX™)
        The installation directory and its subdirectories require specific permissions, depending on each directory's function.
        The onsecurity utility (UNIX™)
        The onsecurity utility checks the security of a file, directory, or path. It also troubleshoots the security problems if any are detected.
        Securing $INFORMIXDIR and its subdirectories
        When the $INFORMIXDIR directory is not secure, run a security script to reset directory permissions.
      - Security warnings and error messages at server startup (UNIX™)
        If a security check that a server utility performs at startup detects a problem, the security check returns an error message or warning.
      - Users and group membership for running utilities
        Most utilities run as secure users and belong to a secure group.
      - Security of the chunk files
        For Informix® security, store data in chunk files that are owned by user informix, belong to group informix, and have 660 permissions.
      - Security for loading external modules
        Use the DB_LIBRARY_PATH configuration parameter to control the location from which shared objects, such as external modules, can be loaded.
    - 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.
    - 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

Installation path security requirements (UNIX™)

The owner, group, and write access settings of the directories in the installation path and key subdirectories must be secure to prevent attacks on Informix® programs.

Informix® checks directory permissions when it is started to help prevent security breaches, such as a denial-of-service attack or a time-of-check, time-of-use (TOCTOU) attack (also known as a race condition).

The installation path is secure when each directory in it (from the root directory to the installation directory) meets all of the following conditions:

The user that owns the directory is trusted.
Either the group that owns the directory is trusted or the group cannot write in the directory.
There is no public write access to the directory. A directory with public write access is inherently not secure because any user can move or rename the directory or a file within it.

The main installation directory must be owned by user informix, must belong to group informix, and must not have public write permission. Typically, no user requires write permission on the directory, but in many environments user informix is granted this permission.

To complete a transaction on the database server that requires trusted privileges, a user must have a user name and belong to a group that matches the names of corresponding, trusted entities that exist on the computer. If a user or group name is not in the environment, the name is not trusted.