Datacom support for security passphrases or long passwords

Products

• Datacom
• Datacom/AD
• Datacom/DB

Issue/Introduction

As many companies work toward a more secure environment for their applications and infrastructure tools, expanding password capabilities from the traditional 8-character limitation to longer passwords or the use of passphrases is being considered.

In order to provide enhanced security, can passphrases be used in Datacom products?

Environment

Component : Datacom/DB

Component : Datacom/AD 

Resolution

Datacom products currently support internal passwords that are a maximum of eight characters long for certain functions. In addition to this capability, we support the ability to secure the user databases and product functions using a site's current Security Authorization Facility (SAF) with IBM RACF, ACF2, or Top Secret. This functionality is called External Security for Datacom, and is a highly configurable and robust means of managing access to Datacom resources and functions.

We encourage clients who want to utilize this capability to implement External Security for Datacom. Through the use of security paths defined to the Datacom Multi-User Facility (called MUF) and the capabilities of wildcards and groups in the SAF definitions, customers have the ability to provide a very generic or a granular access plan.

Additional Information

As of now, DBSRV R&D has mentioned "we don't support passphrases currently. The plan is to support them eventually in Server 15.1 (not sure when). It is one of our backlog items for Server 15.1."

You can visit our Datacom CADRE community page and look at Idea from Jun 05, 2023 09:02 AM "Expand Datacom Server Password field beyond 8 characters" You may need to  sign in first to view and upvote this idea or comment about the ETA.

For further information about using the External Security features for Datacom products, please refer to the Administrating documentation section titled "Security Overview."

As always, please contact Broadcom support for Datacom if you have further questions.