BlackBerry Enterprise Mobility Server 2.x Security Technical Implementation Guide

If log data were to become compromised, then competent forensic analysis and discovery of the true source of potentially malicious system activity is difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. In addition, access to log records provides information an attacker could potentially use to his or her advantage. Application servers contain admin interfaces that allow reading and manipulation of log records. Therefore, these interfaces should not allow unfettered access to those records. Application servers also write log data to log files which are stored on the OS, so appropriate file permissions must also be used to restrict access. Log information includes all information (e.g., log records, log settings, transaction logs, and log reports) needed to successfully log information system activity. Application servers must protect log information from unauthorized read access.

If log data were to become compromised, then competent forensic analysis and discovery of the true source of potentially malicious system activity is difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. In addition, access to log records provides information an attacker could potentially use to his or her advantage. Application servers contain admin interfaces that allow reading and manipulation of log records. Therefore, these interfaces should not allow unfettered access to those records. Application servers also write log data to log files which are stored on the OS, so appropriate file permissions must also be used to restrict access. Log information includes all information (e.g., log records, log settings, transaction logs and log reports) needed to successfully log information system activity. Application servers must protect log information from unauthorized modification.

If log data were to become compromised, then competent forensic analysis and discovery of the true source of potentially malicious system activity is difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. Application servers contain admin interfaces that allow reading and manipulation of log records. Therefore, these interfaces should not allow for unfettered access to those records. Application servers also write log data to log files which are stored on the OS, so appropriate file permissions must also be used to restrict access. Log information includes all information (e.g., log records, log settings, transaction logs, and log reports) needed to successfully log information system activity. Application servers must protect log information from unauthorized deletion.

Most information systems are capable of providing a wide variety of functions and services. Some of the functions and services provided by default may not be necessary to support essential organizational operations. Unneeded services and processes provide additional threat vectors and avenues of attack to the information system. BEMS is a critical component of the mobility architecture and must be configured to enable only those ports, protocols, and services (PPS) necessary to support functionality. All others must be expressly disabled or removed. A DoD-approved firewall implements the required network restrictions. A host-based firewall is appropriate where BEMS runs on a standalone platform. Network firewalls or other architectures may be preferred where BEMS runs in a cloud or virtualized solution.

Most information systems are capable of providing a wide variety of functions and services. Some of the functions and services, provided by default, may not be necessary to support essential organizational operations. Since BEMS is a critical component of the mobility architecture and must be configured to enable only those ports, protocols, and services (PPS) necessary to support functionality, all others must be expressly disabled or removed. A firewall installed on BEMS provides a protection mechanism to ensure unwanted service requests do not reach BEMS and outbound traffic is limited to only BEMS functionality.

All ports, protocols, and services used on DoD networks must be approved and registered via the DoD PPSM process. This is to ensure that a risk assessment has been completed before a new port, protocol, or service is configured on a DoD network and has been approved by proper DoD authorities. Otherwise, the new port, protocol, or service could cause a vulnerability to the DoD network, which could be exploited by an adversary.

Preventing the disclosure of transmitted information requires that the application server take measures to employ some form of cryptographic mechanism in order to protect the information during transmission. This is usually achieved through the use of Transport Layer Security (TLS). Transmission of data can take place between the application server and a large number of devices/applications external to the application server. Examples are a web client used by a user, a backend database, a log server, or other application servers in an application server cluster. If data is transmitted unencrypted, the data then becomes vulnerable to disclosure. The disclosure may reveal user identifier/password combinations, website code revealing business logic, or other user personal information. FIPS 140-2 approved TLS versions include TLS V1.0 or greater. TLS must be enabled and non-FIPS-approved SSL versions must be disabled. NIST SP 800-52 specifies the preferred configurations for government systems. Note, all versions of SSL are not authorized for use per SP 800-52.

During the initial setup of a Transport Layer Security (TLS) connection to the application server, the client sends a list of supported cipher suites in order of preference. The application server will reply with the cipher suite it will use for communication from the client list. If an attacker can intercept the submission of cipher suites to the application server and place, as the preferred cipher suite, a weak export suite, the encryption used for the session becomes easy for the attacker to break, often within minutes to hours.

Having several administrative roles for the BEMS supports separation of duties. This allows administrator-level privileges to be granted granularly, such as giving application management privileges to one group and security policy privileges to another group. This helps prevent administrators from intentionally or inadvertently altering other settings and configurations they may not understand or approve of, which can weaken overall security and increase the risk of compromise. - Server primary administrator: Responsible for server installation, initial configuration, and maintenance functions. Responsible for the setup and maintenance of security configuration administrator and auditor accounts. - Auditor: Responsible for reviewing and maintaining server and mobile device audit logs.

To assure accountability and prevent unauthorized access, organizational users must be identified and authenticated. Organizational users include organizational employees or individuals the organization deems to have equivalent status of employees (e.g., contractors, guest researchers, individuals from allied nations). Users (and any processes acting on behalf of users) are uniquely identified and authenticated for all accesses other than those accesses explicitly identified and documented by the organization, which outlines specific user actions that can be performed on the information system without identification or authentication.

Untrusted Certificate Authorities (CA) can issue certificates, but they may be issued by organizations or individuals that seek to compromise DoD systems or by organizations with insufficient security controls. If the CA used for verifying the certificate is not a DoD-approved CA, trust of this CA has not been established.

A session time-out lock is a temporary action taken when a user stops work and moves away from the immediate physical vicinity of the information system but does not log out because of the temporary nature of the absence. Rather than relying on the user to manually lock their application session prior to vacating the vicinity, applications need to be able to identify when a user's application session has idled and take action to initiate the session lock.

To assure accountability and prevent unauthorized access, organizational users must be identified and authenticated. Organizational users include organizational employees or individuals the organization deems to have equivalent status of employees (e.g., contractors, guest researchers, individuals from allied nations). Users (and any processes acting on behalf of users) are uniquely identified and authenticated for all accesses other than those accesses explicitly identified and documented by the organization, which outlines specific user actions that can be performed on the information system without identification or authentication.

To assure accountability and prevent unauthorized access, organizational users must be identified and authenticated. Organizational users include organizational employees or individuals the organization deems to have equivalent status of employees (e.g., contractors, guest researchers, individuals from allied nations). Users (and any processes acting on behalf of users) are uniquely identified and authenticated for all accesses other than those accesses explicitly identified and documented by the organization, which outlines specific user actions that can be performed on the information system without identification or authentication.

Preventing the disclosure of transmitted information requires that applications take measures to employ some form of cryptographic mechanism in order to protect the information during transmission. This is usually achieved through the use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) or SSL.

Preventing the disclosure of transmitted information requires that applications take measures to employ some form of cryptographic mechanism in order to protect the information during transmission. This is usually achieved through the use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) or SSL.

To assure accountability and prevent unauthorized access, organizational users must be identified and authenticated. Organizational users include organizational employees or individuals the organization deems to have equivalent status of employees (e.g., contractors, guest researchers, individuals from allied nations). Users (and any processes acting on behalf of users) are uniquely identified and authenticated for all accesses other than those accesses explicitly identified and documented by the organization, which outlines specific user actions that can be performed on the information system without identification or authentication.

Preventing the disclosure of transmitted information requires that applications take measures to employ some form of cryptographic mechanism in order to protect the information during transmission. This is usually achieved through the use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) or SSL. Untrusted Certificate Authorities (CA) can issue certificates, but they may be issued by organizations or individuals that seek to compromise DoD systems or by organizations with insufficient security controls. If the CA used for verifying the certificate is not a DoD-approved CA, trust of this CA has not been established.

To assure accountability and prevent unauthorized access, organizational users must be identified and authenticated. Organizational users include organizational employees or individuals the organization deems to have equivalent status of employees (e.g., contractors, guest researchers, individuals from allied nations). Users (and any processes acting on behalf of users) are uniquely identified and authenticated for all accesses other than those accesses explicitly identified and documented by the organization, which outlines specific user actions that can be performed on the information system without identification or authentication.

To assure accountability and prevent unauthorized access, organizational users must be identified and authenticated. Organizational users include organizational employees or individuals the organization deems to have equivalent status of employees (e.g., contractors, guest researchers, individuals from allied nations). Users (and any processes acting on behalf of users) are uniquely identified and authenticated for all accesses other than those accesses explicitly identified and documented by the organization, which outlines specific user actions that can be performed on the information system without identification or authentication.

Logging must be used in order to track system activity, assist in diagnosing system issues, and provide evidence needed for forensic investigations post security incident.