Why did the SECTRACE task start randomly

Products

• ACF2 - z/OS
• ACF2
• ACF2 - MISC

Issue/Introduction

A z/OS operator sees an outstanding reply for SECTRACE on a system running ACF2 or Top Secret:

CAS2100I Continue SECTRACE specification, CANCEL, or END

After responding with END, there was a message 'CAS2101E SECTRACE request invalid' and the task remains up. Trying to PURGE the task leads to a 'NO JCT AVAILABLE' message.

What is SECTRACE, why would it start and what was wrong with the reply?

Can it be cancelled, if so how?

Environment

Release : 16.0

Component : ACF2 for z/OS

Resolution

SECTRACE is used to trace SAF and OMVS security calls on the system. It can be started automatically during an IPL using SYS1.PARMLIB members CAISEC00 and CAITRCxx or can be set through a /SecTrace SET console command. 

The SECTRACE console abbreviation is ST, which can easily be confused with SDSF's STATUS command which is also abbreviated as ST. This could lead to accidental operator prompts for SECTRACE specifications if ST is entered as a console command instead of an SDSF command.

Viewing the console log around the time of the IEF196I messages when SECTRACE is started for the first time will reveal the exact command and who issued it.

Once a SECTRACE address space has been initiated, it remains even if all SECTRACEs have been deleted.  It can be deleted via the CANCEL command or can be left alone as all it is doing is waiting for the next SECTRACE command. It would also disappear at the next IPL.                                  
                                                                          

 

Additional Information

For more details on SECTRACE, please see the Trace SAF Requests section of the ACF2 documentation.