HP-UX 11i Security

Hewlett-Packard offers its own host intrusion detection product. This is the Intrusion Detection System/9000 (IDS/9000), which is a major standard feature of HP-UX 11i security capabilities. IDS/9000 enhances local host-level security by near real-time automatic monitoring of each configured host for signs of unwanted and potentially damaging intrusions.

IDS/9000 concentrates on detecting and alarming the HP-UX 11i operating environment at the kernel audit data level of the operating system. It looks for patterns of suspicious activities that suggest security breaches or misuses are underway. When it detects a potential intrusion, it immediately alerts systems management and creates audit events. The alert also has the ability to execute any HP-UX command or program so that a response can be triggered immediately without waiting for human intervention.

Of interest to developers is the Generic Security Services Application Programming Interface (GSS API) for HP-UX 11i. It contains all the GSS APIs in RFC 2743 and is implemented as C programming language interfaces as defined in RFC 2744. Because of GSS API-independence, an application developer writing secure applications needs only to write the code once and does not need to change it whenever the underlying security mechanism changes.

In addition, HP-UX Kerberos provides a Generic Security Services - Application Programming Interface (GSS API). The GSS API provides a standard programming interface that is authentication-mechanism-independent. This allows application developers the flexibility of using alternative authentication technologies, including Kerberos.