SAS Metadata Security – Page 2

Metacoda Plug-ins Tip: Compare Metadata Objects

One of the new additions in the recently released Metacoda Plug-ins 6.1 R2 is a Compare Metadata Objects feature. This is a something that several customers have requested, particularly for the comparison of SAS metadata security objects like ACTs, Users, Groups, and Roles. One of the most common requests was to be able to compare users, who are supposed to be almost identical, but are found to have different access. Being able to compare the two users to see which groups they have, or don’t have, in common helps to speed up troubleshooting.

With the new Compare Metadata Objects dialog, you can compare any two metadata objects to show similarities and differences. Whilst it can be used to do a basic comparison of any 2 metadata objects, specific attention has been given to aid in the comparison of security objects, including ACT Permission Patterns, ACT and ACE participation, applied ACTs and ACEs, user/group membership of groups and roles, and members of groups and roles.

There are several ways to access this feature. The first is to use SAS Management Console Tools menu:

… this opens the comparison dialog where you can proceed to search for, and select, the two objects you want to compare. Continue reading “Metacoda Plug-ins Tip: Compare Metadata Objects”

Metacoda Plug-ins Tip: User’s Group Content Admin Permissions (Identity Permissions Explorer)

This tip was prompted by a SAS Communities question which I hear from time to time, essentially “How do I find out which groups a SAS user is a Portal Group Content Administrator for?” It can be answered using the Metacoda Identity Permissions Explorer but involves a few steps so I will outline them here.

To quote the SAS® 9.4 Intelligence Platform: Web Application Administration Guide, Group Content Administrator section:

A group content administrator is a user who has WriteMetadata permission for the respective group, and the group’s Portal permission tree. A group content administrator can share personal content with the group, and can edit or remove content that has been shared with the group. (Portal administrators have WriteMetadata permission for all group permission trees that are defined in metadata.)

So, to find out which groups a user is group content admin for, we need to look for all of the group portal permission trees where the user has a grant of the WM permission. This can be done quickly and easily using the Metacoda Identity Permissions Explorer. Below is a screenshot with numbered steps where we find out which groups Aaron Atkins (demoaaron), a fictitious Business Analyst, is a Portal Group Content Administrator for. Continue reading “Metacoda Plug-ins Tip: User’s Group Content Admin Permissions (Identity Permissions Explorer)”

Metacoda Plug-ins Tip: Advanced Expression-Based Filters (Protected Object Reviewer)

This post continues a series of examples on Advanced Expression-Based Filters for Metacoda Plug-ins, in this case for the Protected Object Reviewer.

Here are some expressions that you may find useful to copy and paste into the filter bar of the Metacoda Protected Object Reviewer as a starting point for finding interesting sets of SAS metadata objects that have had access controls, Access Control Templates (or ACTs) and/or Access Control Entries (ACEs or explicit permissions), applied to them:

Protected Tree Branch Objects: show folders and objects, underneath the /Vegas Enterprises metadata tree branch, that have had any ACTs or ACEs applied to them.

#@ path.startsWith("/Vegas Enterprises")

ACT Protected Tree Branch Objects: show folders and objects, underneath the /Vegas Enterprises metadata tree branch, that have had ACTs applied (and optionally ACEs). Continue reading “Metacoda Plug-ins Tip: Advanced Expression-Based Filters (Protected Object Reviewer)”

Metacoda Plug-ins Tip: Advanced Expression-Based Filters (ACE Reviewer)

This post continues a series of examples on Advanced Expression-Based Filters for Metacoda Plug-ins, in this case for the ACE Reviewer.

Here are some expressions that you may find useful to copy and paste into the filter bar of the Metacoda ACE Reviewer as a starting point for finding interesting sets of SAS Access Control Entries (ACEs or explicit permissions):

Tree Branch ACEs: show explicit permissions on folders and objects underneath the /Vegas Enterprises/HR metadata tree branch.

#@ protectedObjectPath.startsWith("/Vegas Enterprises/HR")

Object Type ACEs: show explicit permissions on folders (excluding the root folder) Continue reading “Metacoda Plug-ins Tip: Advanced Expression-Based Filters (ACE Reviewer)”

Metacoda Plug-ins Tip: Advanced Expression-Based Filters (ACT Reviewer)

Many of the Metacoda Plug-ins have Filter Bars which provide a way to filter the contents displayed and show an interesting subset. Normally they do simple case-insensitive “contains” filtering on key attributes like name and description (the filter bar label indicates which attributes are used).

Simple text filtering, as described above, is sufficient for many needs. However, for more advanced requirements there is the ability to switch to expression-based filters which are much more flexible. To use expression-based filtering you add a #@ prefix at the beginning of the filter bar field. What follows is then an expression that can use many of the other attributes/columns available in the tables. This expression is written as a Java like expression (BeanShell to be precise) and must resolve to a boolean true/false to determine whether a row should be shown in the table. Any errors in the expression will be shown in a popup error dialog.

This will allow you to do complex expressions like this in the User Reviewer: Continue reading “Metacoda Plug-ins Tip: Advanced Expression-Based Filters (ACT Reviewer)”