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PAM Features
PAM Features
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The handbook of ARCON PAM solution is being published to guide stakeholders and users. If any of the statements in this document are at
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Overview
Organizations implement various systems and applications to support its internal & customer client needs & leverage on technology to offer
efficient and cost effective services to its clients. This has led to substantial investments in data Centre and technology to manage several
databases, operating systems, web servers, routers etc. The flavors include but not limited to Unix, Linux. The complexity of managing such large
number of systems, with 24*7 support and limited resources requires the administrators to multitask and have access to almost all systems under
their work domain. Further, various application coordinators have access to the systems with varied access entitlements to enable them to
troubleshoot. The access to back end is also granted to certain end-users for the purpose of analytics, reporting etc.
IT infrastructure being a critical function of the organization should be up & running 24*7. This raises the need to implement a solution for
accessing servers in a secure manner & log the activities in the data center. ARCON PAM helps to meet information technology challenges and
offers a technologically advanced and a comprehensive Privilege Access Management Solution, which besides ensuring adequate control on all
the administrative privileges provides features for centralized administrative log management and password management.
Features
Below are the features provided by ARCON PAM.
Feature Description
Password Management ARCON offers automated password management for range of
devices viz.: UNIX, Linux, AIX, Win2K, Win2k3, Oracle, MS SQL,
Services, dcom etc. and is one of the strongest module in the
industry.
The password connectors available are both agent based and
agent less. The agent less connectors offer scalability and the
agent based connectors offer control on the password
management activity and better error trapping.
There are features to set password dependencies for all the
systems and services which ensure that passwords on multiple
systems can be common and changed at the same time. Also the
passwords can be sequentially changed for dependent systems
and services.
The password communication between the ARCOS client and
ARCOS server is in AES-256 encrypted form.
There is a password request mechanism for electronically
releasing the password in case hard console access is required.
Password change Logs are produced which automatically verifies
whether the passwords are changed or not. If some passwords
are not synced, password manager runs again & changes the
password
Support for Password management for service accounts while
allowing to configure service to restart /update etc. (inbuilt
feature)
All ARCON Data is completely encrypted using AES 256 bit
encryption. ARCON passwords can also be provided in secured
enveloped or encrypted soft files as a break glass measure.
Historic password can be restored for any account.
Critical feature when restoring old Virtual machines copies.
Facility to reset passwords using Super Administrator account.
Critical feature while managing Unix based devices.
Auto discovery of accounts across Windows, Unix, Database (
other products are limited to windows domain only)
Password Vault The ARCOS password vault secures all the passwords with its
proprietary encryption methodology. Further it provides dynamic
password generation facility, which incorporates the following:
The Vault can enforce a password policy to avoid usage of
passwords that can be easily guessed.
The password policy defines how frequently the password
must be changed and the rules for the password content,
such as: length, combination of different types of characters,
password history, etc.
The password configuration is parameterized such that the
user can select the appropriate parameters based on the IT
Security Policy of your organization.
Further password management module enables
administrator to perform bulk password changes on
scheduled intervals.
Session Recordings/ Text Logs ARCOS is built for enterprise class environment and offers
unlimited concurrent session recording without any agent on the
target devices.
ARCOS Logs also provide complete meta-data of the windows
sessions and command fired on CLI interfaces.
Audit Trail/ Session Monitoring and Log Management Audit logs for administrative access have been an important issue
for all IT Security and Governance experts, as it has been found
to be extremely difficult to set triggers and to enable audit trails
on the native systems due to various performance issues. This
has been so far largely ignored. ARCON meets this challenge by
capturing the logs at a central location.
The logs captured include commands fired on the SSH/telnet
clients as well as actions performed on the MS SQL Enterprise
Manager and Windows.
Further all actions performed by any application support engineer
on the databases including queries etc. is also logged by the
Server Manager (SM).
The logs captured include both command & video based session
recordings. All the critical data including logs, passwords,
credential stored on secured vault are AES-256 bit encrypted &
are indelible in nature & are tamper proof.
ARCON captures comprehensive audit trails of any PIM initiated
session of the target devices.
Staging Log Server is used to store visual logs before they are
transferred to Database Server. Logs are compressed and stored
on this server.
Access Control User Access Control is a security feature, which helps to prevent
unauthorized changes to your computer. These changes can be
initiated by applications, viruses or other users.
User Access Control module makes sure that these changes are
made only with approval from the Administrator.
Administrators can enable the user logon period, disable the user
logon, session lockout, endpoint based access, and to enable or
disable the dual authorization factor for user(s).
SSO (Single Sign-On) ARCON offers most advanced single sign for almost all
conventional IT Devices with more than 200+ plug-n-play
connectors.
This covers a range of range of devices including Windows,
Unix, Databases (Toad, SQL+, SQL Developer etc.) , Network
Devices, VMWare, HyperV, Peripheral devices consoles and
Web Applications.
Strong feature on managing Network Devices (SSH/Telnet and
GUI based).
Seamless support for Oracle Database over SSH.
Dedicated support for developing additional connectors.
ARCOS SSO is integrated with build in plugins for Multi Domain
Authentication, RSA / Safenet / Vasco Tokens / Duo.
Inbuilt Mobile App Based Authentication, SMS Token based. (
Part of single ARCON license)
EPM (Endpoint Privilege Management) - Separate license required. Introduced to elevate or restrict an application or process for an
User based on his role or preference.
The Users or Groups assigned to the Elevated or Restricted
Profile, are those Users who have been onboarded in ARCON
PAM.
Supported in both Ubuntu and Windows platform.
EPM is designed to detect and prevent known cyber threats
using fixed techniques, protection methodologies.
Specific Processes are either elevated or restricted for users
based on their job role or their requirements. EPM will allow
certain processes to be executed under elevated privileges and
restrict certain process that should be restricted for the particular
end user. Administrators can define policies to limit the access
levels according to their requirements thus limiting the scope of
any unsafe activities that could become a potential threat.
AD Bridging - Separate license required. Active Directory Bridging is an application that configures
bridging between various operating machines (Unix, Linux) and
Windows Active Directory server.
Leverage existing Active Directory deployments to centrally
manage disparate workstations and users.
Achieves SSO for any Enterprise application which supports
Kerberos or LDAP, including SSH, Apache, Oracle, and MySql.
Desk Insight - Separate license required. ARCON PAM Desk Insight is a specialized plugin based module
available with ARCON PAM Privileged Identity Management
Suite for remote desktop management.
Administrators can establish a remote connection within an
enterprise network to any client machine.
Client users can allow administrators to trouble shoot the
machine in a controlled environment.
ARCON PAM Desk Insigh toffers features like Desktop Account
Password Change, Remote Elevation and Dekstop Discovery.
SSH Key Management SSH Key Management feature enables SSH Linux services to be
managed by SSH Key. The single sign on and key rotation for
SSH Linux services will be managed by public/private SSH Key.
SSH keys shall be vaulted in ARCON PAM as of password. Key
rotation is similar concept to password change process in
ARCON PAM.
SSH Key rotation logs can be generated and users can also
request for SSH keys of services.
Multi-factor Authentication A dual authentication process is used in ARCON PAM wherein
the user is authorized twice in ARCON PAM, after which the user
can get access to the application, making it more secure.
Static passwords for authentication has quite a few security
drawbacks such as passwords can be guessed, forgotten, written
down and stolen, eavesdropped or deliberately being told to other
people. A better, more secure way of authentication is called
"dual-factor" based on one time passwords.
Listed below are the types of OTPs used in ARCON PAM
Mobile OTP: Mobile one time password (OTP) configuration
is one of the dual factor authentication. It is used by mobile
users by implementing the application on mobile, inorder to
securely login into ARCON PAM. The users will have to
download and install ARCON Authenticator App from Goog
le Play Store to the mobile device to configure mobile OTP
dual factor authentication.
SMS OTP: SMS OTP as dual factor authentication means
that during login the user has to provide two secure
information such as his password and one time password he
receives as SMS on his mobile phone. SMS OTP is one of
the methods, wherein ARCON PAM user's receives OTP on
registered mobile number.
Biometric Device: Biometric Device Configuration is a dual
factor authentication supported by ARCON PAM. It is
performed by using biometric data (fingerprint) of the user.
ARCON PAM acts as a strategic entry and identity
management system for managing several system based
user. It supports leading biometric devices such as 3M
Cogent, Morpho, and Precission.
Hardware Token: A Hardware token is a security token
which may be a physical device that an authorized User of
computer services is given, to ease authentication. It may be
a small hardware device that the owner carries to authorize
access to a network service. In ARCON PAM, RADIUS
servers are used for authentication of a RSA portal. RADIUS
is a protocol similar to LDAP, DCPIP, and RDP protocol.
Similarly, RADIUS is a kind of protocol that helps to
communicate with another server.
Email OTP: A dual factor authentication means that during
login the user has to provide two secure information such as
his password and one time password he receives on the
registered email address. Email OTP is one of the methods,
wherein ARCON PAM users receive OTP on registered
email address.
Voice Biometric: Voice Bio-metric Authentication is a type
of Dual Factor Authentication which uses Web Service for
authenticating user before logging into Client Manager. The
predefined web service authentication is configured, which
will authenticate the user through their voice and decide
whether to allow the user to login or not.
TOTP: Time-based One-time Passwords Authentication is a
robust multi-factor authentication where the login tokens are
formed by mixing a secret key with the current time interval
to generate the OTP. There are various applications on
which TOTP can be received. Users can choose the authenti
cations from Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator,
Symantec VIP Authenticator, etc.
Realtime Data Synchronization and Near Zero Downtime - Separate Supports continuous harmonization of the data when the Primary
license required. Node is down.
ARCOSDataSync service will synchronize the data from
Secondary Node to Primary Node and Users will be able to see
their activities log from Primary Node.
Knight Analytics ARCON PAM introduces Knight Analytics tool that continuously
checks different user behaviors, learns from them, and predicts
threats in advance.
It uses data mining, statistics, modeling, machine learning,
predictive analytics, and AI for training the dataset, anomaly
detection, and to make predictions about the existing and future
threats.
The graphical user interface/intuitive dashboard displays critical
issues from a list of riskiest users down to the raw events. It
displays the most important security issues with respect to users,
sessions, commands, processes that one should be aware of so
that one can make better-informed business decisions.
Alerts are received based on the risky enetities, the one with the
greatest potential risk level /risk score.
Spection ARCON PAM Spection is used for reporting and data analysis,
and is considered a core component of business intelligence.
ARCON PAM Spection is a dynamic report builder that allows
searching as well as filtering capabilities to derive a detailed
compilation of all activities. It also provides entity wise views, so
you can see the activities performed from a command level,
session level, process level, user level, service level or even a
group level view. It allows the user to select exactly what details
(column) to add in your report.
Dynamic graphs help in visualizing large volumes of data in a
coherent way for all the reports in Spection.
Video logs are captured for session, processes, and command
fired by the Users.
Supports smart session monitoring which monitors and highlights
all the users activities.
All the reports present in the Spection can be scheduled.
Two Level Data Encryption - HSM Integration Encrypt passwords of users and services.
The password is encrypted once with an ARCON PAM Key and
then again encrypted with User defined key and store the
passwords for enhanced security.
User Defined Key can be stored on the HSM device.
Integration with OKTA via SAML Okta is a cloud-based identity management provider that can be
integrated with ARCON PAM SAML 2.0 API to allow users to log
into ARCON PAM using their Single Sign-On (SSO) credentials.
Security Assertion Markup Language 2.0 (SAML) is an open
standard for exchanging identity and security information with
applications and service providers.
ARCON PAM's support for SAML enables you to sign in using
your corporate directory credentials, such as your user name and
password from Azure Active Directory. With SAML, you can use
single sign-on (SSO) to sign in to all of your ARCON PAM
applications by using a single set of credentials.
ARCON PAM will enable SAML for a domain. Any user who uses
that domain will be forced to login via their enterprise identity
provider. For existing ARCON PAM users, their ARCON PAM
password will be no longer used.
Integration with Bots Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is the process of automating
mundane tasks with ease, efficiency and accuracy. ARCON PAM
users can integrate with various automation solution.
Remote Assist - Separate license required. ARCON PAM Remote Assist is a new remote desktop
management tool available with ARCON PAM Privileged Identity
Management Suite.
With Remote Assist IT process management is simplified and
allows administrator to remotely stream the content of an end-
user.
ARCON PAM Remote Assist manages all remote assistance
provided between the PAM team (host) and the Service
requestor even over the internet.
ARCON PAM Web Portal acts as a point of contact for identifying
users with specific requirement for remote assistance. Remote
assist includes a report that displays the record of each and
every remote assistance provided.
Remote Assist login access is provided only to authorized
ARCON PAM users. The target users will have to install Remote
Assist application on to their respective systems.
Once installed, the target users can request for remote
assistance from an authorized ARCON PAM user.
Client users can allow administrators to trouble shoot the
machine in a controlled environment.
ARCON’s File transfer provides a secure communication channel
from one computer system to another, integrated inside the
Remote Assist application.
Desk Insight functionality is enhanced to Arcon Remote Assist,
where the connections
can be established both over the intranet and the internet.
Process Elevation enables end-users to elevate admins’ rights,
privileges, change passwords, and access related tasks for any
process, in a controlled environment.
The Activities can be overviewed through the Reporting feature.
Automatic Failover Manager - Separate license required. Automatic Fail over Manager describes the automatic vault fail
over Manager, It is programmed to automatically operate in case
of failure of ARCON PAM Database Server.
ARCON PAM uses the MS SQL log shipping technology to
automate the backup and restore process in case of ARCON
PAM Database failures.All the transactions in the primary
Database server in DC is copied and stored in the DR
environment.
ARCON PAM automatic fail over manager will connect to the
SQL cluster IP of the DC and will perform a DB check, if
unsuccessful it will continue to check for the predefined interval.
After the per-defined unsuccessful attempts, ARCON PAM
Automatic Vault Fail over manager will connect to DR database
server and bring the ARCON PAM DR Database in Read/Write
mode and bring the ARCON PAM Database Server up and
running.