When encrypting the password for an XCOM transfer does this affect the receiving side?

Products

• XCOM Data Transport
• XCOM Data Transport - Windows
• XCOM Data Transport - Linux PC
• XCOM Data Transport - z/OS

Issue/Introduction

When I encrypt the password used for an XCOM transfer is there anything to do on the receiving side?

 

Environment

• XCOM™ Data Transport® for z/OS
• XCOM™ Data Transport® for Windows
• XCOM™ Data Transport® for UNIX/Linux PC

Resolution

With XCOM's program XCOMENCR you can encrypt a password before a transfer:

• On the Mainframe you use PGM=XCOMENCR to encrypt the password
• On Windows you use %XCOM_HOME%\xcomencr.exe
• On Unix you use %XCOM_HOME/bin/xcomencr.

On the receiving side there is nothing to do:

• XCOM receives the password which was sent over.
• In case it was encrypted, XCOM decrypts it before checking it for relevance.
• That process is transparent for the user, who has nothing to do.

Additional Information

Even if not using XCOMENCR the password is encrypted before it is sent to the transfer partner and XCOM never sends passwords in a readable form.
XCOMENCR uses an in-house 76-bit proprietary method to encrypt XCOM parameters with a variable and a fixed key.