SAP Security Concepts
Authorizations in SAP systems: what admins should look out for
The permission checks are logged as part of the system trace in transaction ST01. It records all permission checks and validated permission values for a specific application server, and specifies, depending on the client, whether the permission checks were successful or not. The Trace display has now been improved (see also SAP Note 1373111).
First and foremost, legal principles must be stated and specific reference must be made to authorizations that are critical to the law and that may not be assigned (or at most may be assigned to emergency users). An example is the authorization "Debugging with Replace", to which the object S_DEVELOP with the values ACTVT = 02 and OBJTYPE = DEBUG legitimizes and over which data can be manipulated by main memory change. However, this would violate § 239 of the German Commercial Code, the so-called "erasure prohibition".
Advantages of authorization tools
When creating the permission concept, a naming convention is defined for PFCG roles. Every customer has his own preferences or specifications, which must be adhered to. According to our project experience, some naming conventions are particularly attractive. Naming conventions for PFCG roles can be very diverse. You will have noticed that even the roles provided by SAP do not correspond to a uniform naming convention. So there are roles whose names start with SAP_. There are also roles, such as for the SRM system, that start with the /SAPSRM/ namespace. In this tip we would like to give you some hints and criteria that you can use to help define a naming convention of PFCG roles.
If you use change request management in SAP Solution Manager, you can use the system recommendations in an integrated way. To do this, create an amendment in the system recommendations for the SAP hints to be implemented. To access the system recommendations, you must have permission for the SM_FUNCS object (ACTVT = 03; SM_APPL = SYSTEM_ REC; SM_FUNC = , such as SECURITY).
For the assignment of existing roles, regular authorization workflows require a certain minimum of turnaround time, and not every approver is available at every go-live. With "Shortcut for SAP systems" you have options to assign urgently needed authorizations anyway and to additionally secure your go-live.
The PFCG_ORGFIELD_CREATE report provides a test run that allows you to identify all the affected roles.
You can also find some useful tips from practice on the subject of SAP authorizations on the page www.sap-corner.de.
Now select the application servers in the list on which you want to run the system trace and start the trace with a click on Trace.