Skip to Main Content
Cloud Management and AIOps


This is an IBM Automation portal for Cloud Management, Technology Cost Management, Network Automation and AIOps products. To view all of your ideas submitted to IBM, create and manage groups of Ideas, or create an idea explicitly set to be either visible by all (public) or visible only to you and IBM (private), use the IBM Unified Ideas Portal (https://ideas.ibm.com).

Shape the future of IBM!

We invite you to shape the future of IBM, including product roadmaps, by submitting ideas that matter to you the most. Here's how it works:

Search existing ideas

Start by searching and reviewing ideas and requests to enhance a product or service. Take a look at ideas others have posted, and add a comment, vote, or subscribe to updates on them if they matter to you. If you can't find what you are looking for,

Post your ideas
  1. Post an idea.

  2. Get feedback from the IBM team and other customers to refine your idea.

  3. Follow the idea through the IBM Ideas process.

Specific links you will want to bookmark for future use

Welcome to the IBM Ideas Portal (https://www.ibm.com/ideas) - Use this site to find out additional information and details about the IBM Ideas process and statuses.

IBM Unified Ideas Portal (https://ideas.ibm.com) - Use this site to view all of your ideas, create new ideas for any IBM product, or search for ideas across all of IBM.

ideasibm@us.ibm.com - Use this email to suggest enhancements to the Ideas process or request help from IBM for submitting your Ideas.

Status Not under consideration
Created by Guest
Created on Jul 7, 2022

Make FTAs secure - fix conman security gaps

FTAs include conman which can submit ad-hoc commands to other workstations with the sbd command under the scope allowed by the local security file. A compromised FTA may modify its own security file at will and submit any commands to other workstations. Additionally, the communication to the Workload Automation domain managers that relays these commands could be spoofed in the network without compromising an FTA.

We need the conman commands to transmit with the credentials under which the command is believed to be authorized and cryptographically signed by the user so that the message is irrefutable and can be confirmed by the WA infrastructure and the agent on which the command is to be executed. Or some similar technique that achieves the same goal of making the commands received verifiable.

Idea priority High
  • Guest
    Reply
    |
    Jul 8, 2022

    The centralized security file does not prevent the network based spoofing of conman sbd commands. The premise still stands.

  • Guest
    Reply
    |
    Jul 8, 2022

    The solution to this problem is to implement the centralized security feature. This way it's not possible to modify the compromised FTA security file, and if this is attempted the FTA automatically will unlink. There should be no need for further improvement.