Introduction

This chapter covers two main topicsRole-Based Access Control (RBAC) and system messaging (syslog). These are both related in that they participate in the securing and monitoring of systems in a Solaris environment. The use of Role-Based Access Control makes the delegation of authorizations much easier for the system administrator to manage, as groups of privileges can easily be given to a role through the use of profiles. Also, the use of roles means that a user has to first log in using his or her normal ID, then use the su command to gain access to the role (and therefore assigned privileges). This has the advantage of being logged and so helps to establish accountability. The system messaging service (syslog) stores important system and security messages and is fully configurable. The system administrator can tune the service so that certain messages are delivered to several places (such as a log file, a message, and the system console), greatly increasing the chances of it being noticed quickly.