OS/400 User Account Name Disclosure Vulnerability

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I'm very happy to see you looking at IBM's AS/400 for possible security
weaknesses. Having been a user and developer on the AS/400 and its
predecessor, System/38, for a dozen years, I have seen it to be a very
secure platform. Properly administered, it would be extremely difficult to
hack it. It's almost impossible to put a worm or virus or similar item on it.

This so-called vulnerability is well known and has never been considered a
weakness in that community. To get to this point, a user is already signed
on to the system. You cannot get to this through any other means than to
have signed on to an active session. Therefore, you already have access to
the machine.

There are settings in the individual user's parameters (contained in an
object called a user profile) that can limit the ability to use the command
line of an interactive session. This would prevent a user from using a
command called DSPLIB (display library), which would allow a user to see
the contents of the library called QSYS, where the user profiles are
stored. Most users would not have the authority to change or delete any of
these things, unless specifically allowed to.

There is a manual, Tips and Tools for Securing Your iSeries, on the IBM
iSeries/AS400 site,
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/html/as400/v5r1/ic2924/books/c4153005.pdf,
that might be helpful for you to look at.

Thanks

Vern Hamberg

Would you like to see a challenging little arithmetic puzzle
that might get you or your kids or grandkids more interested
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Sillygism--

Something is better than nothing.
Nothing is better than a ham sandwich.
Ergo
Something is better than a ham sandwich.
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