3.2. Basic Security Configuration

Overview

The default security settings block access to a broker's remote ports. If you want to access the Red Hat JBoss A-MQ runtime remotely, you must first customize the security configuration. The first thing you will want to do is create at least one JAAS user. This will enable remote access to the broker.
Other common configuration changes you may want to make are:
  • configure access to the Fuse Management Console
  • assign roles to each of the remote ports to limit access
  • strengthen the credentials needed to access the remote console
Warning
If you are planning to enable SSL/TLS security, you must ensure that you explicitly disable SSLv3 protocol, in order to safeguard against the Poodle vulnerability (CVE-2014-3566). For more details, see Disabling SSLv3 in JBoss Fuse 6.x and JBoss A-MQ 6.x.

Create a secure JAAS user

By default, no JAAS users are defined for the container, which effectively disables remote access (it is impossible to log on).
To create a secure JAAS user, edit the InstallDir/etc/users.properties file and add a new user field, as follows: 
Username=Password,Administrator
Where Username and Password are the new user credentials. The Administrator role gives this user the privileges to access all administration and management functions of the container. For more details about JAAS, see section "JAAS Authentication" in "Security Guide".
Do not define a numeric username with a leading zero. Such usernames will always cause a login attempt to fail. This is because the Karaf shell, which the console uses, drops leading zeros when the input appears to be a number. For example: 
JBossA-MQ:karaf@root> echo 0123
123
JBossA-MQ:karaf@root> echo 00.123
0.123
JBossA-MQ:karaf@root>
Note
You can also grant privileges to a user through user groups, instead of listing the roles directly.
Warning
It is strongly recommended that you define custom user credentials with a strong password.

Role-based access control

The JBoss A-MQ container supports role-based access control, which regulates access through the JMX protocol, the Karaf command console, and the Fuse Management console. When assigning roles to users, you can choose from the set of standard roles, which provide the levels of access described in Table 3.1, “Standard Roles for Access Control”.

Table 3.1. Standard Roles for Access Control

RolesDescription
Monitor, Operator, MaintainerGrants read-only access to the container.
Deployer, AuditorGrants read-write access at the appropriate level for ordinary users, who want to deploy and run applications. But blocks access to sensitive container configuration settings.
Administrator, SuperUserGrants unrestricted access to the container.
For more details about role-based access control, see section "Role-Based Access Control" in "Security Guide".

Strengthening security on the remote console port

You can employ the following measures to strengthen security on the remote console port:
  • Make sure that the JAAS user credentials have strong passwords.
  • Customize the X.509 certificate (replace the Java keystore file, InstallDir/etc/host.key, with a custom key pair).
For more details, see the Security Guide.