Securing OS Management Hub

To use OS Management Hub securely, learn about your security and compliance responsibilities.

In general, Oracle provides security of cloud infrastructure and operations, such as cloud operator access controls and infrastructure security patching. You are responsible for securely configuring your cloud resources. Security in the cloud is a shared responsibility between you and Oracle.

Oracle is responsible for the following security requirements:

• Physical Security: Oracle is responsible for protecting the global infrastructure that runs all services offered in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. This infrastructure consists of the hardware, software, networking, and facilities that run Oracle Cloud Infrastructure services.

Your security responsibilities are described on this page, which include the following areas:

• Access Control: Limit privileges as much as possible. Users should be given only the access necessary to perform their work.
• Patching: Keep software up-to-date with the latest security patches to prevent vulnerabilities.

Use this checklist to identify the tasks you perform to secure OS Management Hub in a new Oracle Cloud Infrastructure tenancy.

Task	More Information
Use IAM policies to grant access to users and resources	OS Management Hub Policies
Configure groups to control access to the service	User Group
Add only the software sources you require to the service	Selecting Software Sources
Use profiles to control the software sources attached to an instance	Selecting Software Sources
Configure regular mirror syncs for the management stations	Syncing Mirrors

After getting started with OS Management Hub, use this checklist to identify security tasks that we recommend you perform regularly.

Task	More Information
Apply the latest security patches	Patching Software
Use Ksplice to apply security updates	Patching Software
Monitor mirror sync status and create sync jobs	Syncing Mirrors
Remove unnecessary packages on instances	Removing Unnecessary Packages
Review reports to verify security compliance	Reviewing Reports

Use policies to limit access to OS Management Hub.

See OS Management Hub Policies.

Only add the minimal number of vendor software sources you require to the service. When creating custom software sources use filters or specify a package list to further reduce the content available to instances. Only include the packages necessary to support your workload.

When creating a software source profile, only include software sources that are required. This minimizes the number of packages available to the instance reducing the package installation footprint. Similarly, when creating a group or lifecycle environment only attach the minimal set of software sources necessary.

Regularly sync mirrored software sources to ensure the management station distributes the latest software packages to instances.

By default a mirror sync job runs once a week. Adjust this frequency based on your security requirements. You can edit the mirror sync schedule as needed. Also, monitor the status of the management station's mirror syncs and run an on-demand mirror sync job at anytime.

Ensure that your managed instances are running the latest security updates.

Keep instance software up-to-date with security patches. We recommend that you periodically apply the latest available software updates to instances registered with OS Management Hub. Consider using multiple update jobs to keep instances up-to-date. For example, apply zero-downtime Ksplice updates often and apply regular security updates on a slower cadence.

Creating Update Jobs

To ensure instances receive regular updates, you can create a job to schedule recurring updates, see:

• Updating a Standalone Instance
• Updating Instances in a Group
• Updating All Standalone Instances in a Compartment

Running Ksplice Updates

Use Oracle Ksplice to apply critical security patches to Linux kernels on instances without requiring a reboot. Ksplice also updates the glibc and OpenSSL user space libraries, applying critical security patches without disrupting workloads. Create a recurring update job that applies Ksplice updates.

Remove unnecessary packages from instances to reduce the installation footprint and prevent potential security issues.

Removing a software source doesn't remove packages that were installed from the software source. For example, suppose you're moving from UEK R6 to UEK R7. You add the software source for UEK R7 and then remove the software source for UEK R6. Any installed UEK R6 packages remain on the system. Those packages, however, are no longer updated because the software source has been removed and thus could appear in security scans.

For information about removing packages, see:

• Removing Packages from an Instance
• Removing Packages from a Group

OS Management Hub generates reports for security updates, bug updates, and instance activity. Review these reports to identify any instances that are out-of-date. See Viewing Reports.