3 Implement Oracle Communications Diameter Signaling Router Security
Diameter Signaling Router Web GUI Standard Features
This section explains the security features of the Oracle Communications Diameter Signaling Router software that are available to the Administrative User through the Graphical User Interface (GUI) using a compatible web browser.
User Administration
Table 3-1 Predefined User and Group
User | Group | Description |
---|---|---|
guiadmin | admin | Full access (read or write privileges) to all functions including administration functions |
The User Administration page allows the admin user to add, modify, enable, or delete user accounts. Each user that is allowed to access the DSR GUI, is assigned with a unique Username. The correct username and its password must be provided during login.
If a user has made three consecutive unsuccessful login attempts, then that user's account is disabled. The value of the number of failed login attempts, before disabling an account, can be configured through Administrations > Options. This value can be set between 0-10. The default value is 3. If the value is set to 0, then the user account is not disabled for unsuccessful login attempts.
Each user can be assigned to one or more groups. Only a user with user admin or group admin privileges can view or make changes to user accounts or groups. For more details on user administration, see the Users Administration section in the Operation, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) Guide.
Establishing Groups and Group Permissions
You can assign each GUI user to one or more groups. The Groups Administration page enables you to create, modify, and delete user groups. Also, you can assign permissions to the group. The permissions determine the functions and restrictions for the users belonging to that group. The permissions on this page are categorized as follows:
- Global Action Permissions
- Administration Permissions
- Configuration Permissions
- Alarms & Events Permissions
- Security Log Permissions
- Status & Manage Permissions
- Measurements Permissions
- Communication Agent Configuration Permissions
- Communication Agent Maintenance Permissions
- Diameter Configuration Permissions
- Diameter Maintenance Permissions
- Diameter Diagnostics Permissions
- Diameter Mediation Permissions
- Diameter Troubleshooting with IDIH Permissions
- Diameter AVP Dictionary Permissions
For more information about the available permissions for the groups, see the Group Administration section in the Operation, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) Guide.
For non-admin users, a group with restricted authority is essential. To prevent non-admin users from setting up new users and groups, ensure that Users and Groups under the Administration Permissions section are unchecked, as shown in the following image.
Figure 3-1 Global Action and Administration Permissions

Creating Users and Assigning to Groups
Before adding a user, determine which user group the user must be assigned based on the user’s operational role. The group assignment determines the functions a user can access. A user must either have user or group administrative privileges to view or make changes to the user accounts or groups. The admin user can set up or change user accounts and groups, enable or disable user accounts, set password expiration intervals, and change the user passwords.
The Insert User page displays the following elements:
- User Name
- Group
- Authentication Options
- Access Allowed
- Maximum Concurrent Logins
- Session Inactivity Limit
- Comment
For more information, see the Administration chapter in the Operation, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) Guide.
The User Administration page allows the admin user to perform the following actions:
- Add a New User
- View User Account Information
- Update User Account Information
- Delete a User
- Enable or Disable a User Account
- Change a User’s Assigned Group
- Generate a User Report
- Change Password
For more information, see the Administration chapter in the Operation, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) Guide.
User Authentication
In the DSR GUI, Users are authenticated using either login credentials or Single Sign-On (SSO). For more information about setting up a password, see the Passwords section in the Operation, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) Guide.
You can configure SSO to work with or without a shared LDAP authentication server. If the SSO is configured to work with an LDAP server, then SSO will require remote (LDAP) authentication for account access on an account-by-account basis. For more information about LDAP authentication, see the Operation, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) Guide.
Passwords
The Administrator can perform password configurations such as setting passwords, password history rules, and password expiration. In the DSR GUI, the password configurations can be performed from the Users Administration page. For more information, see the Administration chapter in the Operation, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) Guide.
Changing DSR Administrative Account Passwords
The System Installation procedure creates the following default accounts:
- guiadmin – for DSR GUI
- root – for CLI
- admusr – for CLI
The installation procedure also conveys the passwords for the accounts created. As a security measure, these passwords must be changed.
To change the default password of an account created for the GUI access, see the Administration chapter in the Operation, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) Guide.
To change the Operating System (OS) account passwords for a CLI account, see the section.
Password Complexity
Password complexity refers to the password selection requirements for better security. The user must ensure that the following conditions are fulfilled for a password to be valid:
- A password must contain 8 to 16 characters.
- A password must contain at least three of the four types of characters such as numeric, lower case letters, upper case letters, or special characters. For example: ! @ # $ % ^ & * ? ~.
- A password must not be the same as the Username or contain the Username
in any part of the password. For example,
Username=jsmith
andpassword=$@jsmithJS
would be invalid. - A password cannot be the inverse of the Username. For example,
Username=jsmith
andpassword=$@htimsj
would be invalid. - The user must not re-use the last three passwords.
For configuring the complexity of the password, set the required values in
the MaxPasswordHistory
field on the
Administration > General Options
screen in the user interface.
Password Expiration
Password expiration is enforced the first time a user logs in to the user interface. The admin user grants the new user with a temporary password during the initial user account setup. After logging in for the first time using the temporary password, the user interface forces the user to change the password. The user is re-directed to a password changing page that requires the user to enter the old password and then enter a new password twice.
The admin user can also configure the password expiration parameters on a system-wide basis. By default, password expiration occurs after 90 days. For more information about how to configure password expiration, see the Configuring the Expiration of Password section in the Operation, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) Guide.
Restricting Concurrent Logins
The Insert User page has a Maximum Concurrent Logins field. The value in this field indicates the maximum number of concurrent logins a user can perform for each server. This feature cannot be enabled for users belonging to the Admin group. The value of this field can be set from 0 to 50.
The User Administration page has a Concurrent Logins Allowed field. The value in this field is the concurrent number of logins allowed.
Note:
For restricting the number of concurrent login instances for OS users, contact Oracle technical support.External Authentication
Users can be authenticated remotely where an external LDAP server is used to perform the authentication.
LDAP Authentication for Users
You can configure, update, or delete LDAP authentication servers under the Remote Servers option. If multiple LDAP servers are configured, then the first available server in the list is used to perform the authentication. The secondary server is used only if the first server is unavailable for authentication.
The following elements are required to configure an LDAP server:
- Hostname
- Account Domain Name
- Account Domain Name Short
- Port
- Base DN
- Password
- Account Filter Format
- Account Canonical Form
- Referrals
- Bind Requires DN
For more information on how to configure the LDAP server, see the LDAP Authentication section in the Operation, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) Guide.
SSO Authentication for Users
Single Sign-On (SSO) allows the user to log into multiple servers within an SSO zone by using a shared certificate among the subject servers within the zone. Once a user is authenticated successfully with any system in the SSO domain, the user can access other systems in the SSO zone without re-entering the authentication credentials.
When two zones in the SSO domain exchange certificates, a trusted relationship is established between the zones and all the systems grouped into the zone, expanding the authenticated login capability to servers in both zones. For more information on how to configure SSO zones, see the Certificate Management section in the Operation, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) Guide.
Password Strengthening Procedures
This section describes various procedures to set the password strength for each and every server in the topology.
Setting Password Strength with Minimum Digit Characters
This section describes the procedure to set a strong password using minimum digits for each and every server in the topology.
Setting Password Strength with Minimum Uppercase Characters
This section describes the procedure to set a strong password using minimum uppercase characters for each and every server in the topology.
Setting Password Strength with Minimum Special Characters
This section describes the procedure to set a strong password using minimum special characters for each and every server in the topology.
Setting Password Strength with Minimum Lowercase Characters
This section describes the procedure to set a strong password using minimum lowercase characters for each and every server in the topology.
Login and Welcome Banner Customization
The DSR GUI allows to enter custom messages to the Login screen and Welcome message after successful user login. The Administration > Options page allows the admin user to view a list of global options.
To enter a custom message to the Login screen, the admin user can enter the required message in the LoginMessage field. This enables the user to view the customized login message on the login screen.
To enter a custom message to the Welcome Banner, the admin user can enter the required message in the WelcomeMessage field. This enables the user to view the customized welcome message after successful login.
SSH Security Hardening Procedures
This section describes the security hardening procedures using Secure Socket Shell (SSH).
Setting SSH Client Alive Count
This section describes the procedure to set the count for SSH client.
Disabling SSH Access through Empty Passwords
This section describes the procedure to disable the SSH access through empty passwords.
Enabling SSH Warning Banner
This section describes the procedure to enable the SSH warning banner.
Denying SSH Environment Options
This section describes the procedure to deny SSH environment options on each and every server in the topology.
Generating RSA SSH Key for Admin User
This section describes the procedure to generate a passphrase protected RSA SSH key for 'admusr' User Account.
After running the procedure, any key-based SSH login for the 'admusr' account prompts for a passphrase. Setting a passphrase on the key affects the execution of procedures that require SSH access using the ‘admusr’ account. The admin user is prompted to enter the passphrase for each SSH access. For more information on how to run the procedures that require SSH access, see the Changing the TPD Web Services Password and Changing the Configuration Web Services Password sections.
Setting SSH Log Level
This section describes the procedure to set SSH log level to INFO.
Enabling SSH IgnoreRhosts
This section describes the procedure to enable SSH IgnoreRhosts.
Disabling SSH X11 Forwarding
This section describes the procedure to disable SSH X11 Forwarding.
Disabling SSH HostbasedAuthentication
This section describes the procedure to disable SSH host based authentication.
Setting SSH LoginGraceTime
This section describes the procedure to set the SSH Login grace time to 1 min.
Disabling SSH Insecure Key Exchange Algorithms and Setting Up Key Length
This section describes the procedure to disable
diffie-hellman-group1-sha1
and gss-group1-sha1
key
exchange (Kex) algorithms, and to set the moduli (key length) longer than 1024
bits.
Services Hardening Procedures
This section describes various hardening procedures for the services.
Uninstalling tftp-server Package
This section describes the procedure to uninstall the tftp-server
package.
Disabling xinetd Service
This section describes the procedure to disable the xinetd service.
SNMP Configuration
The DSR GUI has an interface to retrieve KPIs and alarms from a remote location using Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). Only the active Network OAM&P server allows SNMP administration. For more information, see the SNMP Trapping section in the Operation, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) Guide.
The Active Network OAM&P server provides a single interface to SNMP data for the entire network, and individual servers interface directly with SNMP managers. The application sends SNMP traps to SNMP Managers that are registered to receive the traps. You can view and change the IP addresses and authorization information from the SNMP Trapping page.
You must set up at least one Manager to enable the SNMP. The system allows configuring up to five different Managers to receive SNMP traps and send requests. These could be either a valid IPv4 address or a valid hostname known to the system. The hostname must be unique and is case-insensitive. You can enter up to 20 characters into the string. The valid characters are alphanumeric and the minus sign. The hostname must start and end with an alphanumeric.
The Enabled Versions field on this page lets you pick the version of SNMP. The traps can be enabled or disabled collectively or independently from individual servers by checking the traps enabled checkbox on this page.
The SNMP Trapping page provides the following functionalities:
- Add an SNMP manager
- View SNMP settings
- Update SNMP settings
- Delete the SNMP manager
For more information on how to perform these actions, see the Operation, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) Guide.
Enabling SNMP Versions
The Enabled Versions field in the SNMP Trapping page lets the user to enable the required SNMP version as follows:
- SNMPv2c: Allows SNMP service only to managers with SNMPv2c authentication.
- SNMPv3: Allows SNMP service only to managers with SNMPv3 authentication.
- SNMPv2c and SNMPv3: Allows SNMP service to managers with SNMPv2c or SNMPv3 authentication. This is the default option.
Note:
The recommended option is SNMPv3 for secure operation.Configuring Community Names
When the SNMPv2c is enabled in the Enabled Versions field, you must configure the SNMPV2c Community Name since it is a required field. The maximum length of the Community Name (String) is 31 characters. It is recommended to use unique, hard to guess Community Name values and avoid using well-known Community Names such as “public” and “private.”
SNMPv3 on PMAC
This section provides an overview of procedures and sub-procedures required to enable overall SNMPv3 protocol support on the PMAC system. It also provides an overview of the procedure to configure SNMP Version 3 security model and trap servers.
Enabling SNMPv3 Support on PMAC
There are multiple procedures and sub-procedures required to enable overall SNMPv3 protocol support on the PMAC system as follows:
- Updating the SNMP service on existing remote servers on the PMAC control network.
- Updating the SNMP service on the PMACserver service to support SNMPv3.
- Updating the PMAC messaging system to support SNMPv3.
- Updating the SNMPv3 Security settings.
For more information about performing the above steps, see Appendix S in the PMAC Configuration Guide.
Authorized IPs
IP addresses that have permission to access the GUI can be added or deleted from the Authorized IPs page. If an IP address does not have permission to access the GUI and attempts to connect, a notification displays on the GUI, and access is not granted to that IP address.
Before enabling this feature, you must add the IP address of the client to the list of authorized IPs. Enabling the Authorized IPs functionality prevents unauthorized IP addresses from accessing the DSR GUI.
For more information about how to enable this feature, see the Authorized IPs section in the Operation, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) Guide.
Certificate Management
The Certificate Management feature allows you to configure digital security certificates to secure the following:
- Diameter Signaling Router (DSR) web sessions
- user authentication through secure LDAP over TLS
- Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication across a defined zone of DSR servers.
The feature functionalities are as follows:
- supports certificates based on the hostname or fully qualified hostname.
- allows building certificate signing requests (CSRs) for signing by a known certificate authority and later import the signed certificate into the DSR.
- allows generating a Certificate Report of individual or all (wildcard) defined certificates.
For more information about the Certificate Management feature, see the Operation, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) Guide.
Creating a New Certificate for WebLogic and Tomcat Servers
This section describes the procedures that allow you to create customized certificates and replace the default Appworks certificate provided by DSR.
Creating Keystore and Certificate Signing Request
This procedure describes the steps to create a keystore and Certificate Signing Request (CSR).
Importing Certificate
This procedure describes the steps to import the certificate.
Configuring Keystore on WebLogic
This procedure describes the steps to configure Keystore on WebLogic.
SFTP Administration
Oracle Communications Diameter Signaling Router (DSR) supports SFTP sessions with external servers to transfer various files from DSR. The authentication process requires a digital certificate to authenticate the sessions. The external server drives the files transfer process.
For more information, see the SFTP Users Administration section in the Operation, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) Guide.