Security Hardening

 

The default security settings of TIM Enterprise allow for ease of installation and are suitable for the needs of most organisations. However, if your organisation's IT security policy demands it, or you plan to expose the system to an untrusted network such as the Internet, it is recommended you harden the security using the methods described below.

Blocking invalid login attempts

The system can blacklist the source IP address of a would-be attacker if a number of unsuccessful access attempts are made within a specified period of time. The following two Registry entries determine how many invalid login attempts are permissible before the source IP is blacklisted and, if so, for how long the blacklist will remain in place until further attempts are entertained:-

Registry String data value	Description
FloodFailCount = 0	Number of attempts
FloodLockTime = 60	Lockout duration

All Registry keys for TIM Enterprise are located in the following hive:-

Changing the default web server port

If you would like to change the default port used for web traffic you can edit the "WWWServerPort" Registry key.

Registry String data value	Description
WWWServerPort = port number	Port address for webserver to listen on (Default is 80, unless changed during setup)

Enabling High Security mode

To enable High Security mode, add the following Registry String value:-

Within the Windows Registry, right click and select New ? String Value and name it HighSecurity.

Then, double-click on it and enter the Value of True, as shown below:

When the HighSecurity Registry value is set to True, the following restrictions are imposed:-

1. Ability to block individual web scripts by including them in a blacklist file:
   ?

   1	"\ssldata\{class}\blacklist.___"

2. Enforce password complexity for web users (additional Registry entries required)
3. Forbid direct SQL queries through web interface
4. System alert messages are silently suppressed
5. System database connection tests forbidden
6. Ability to (re)create system database tables inhibited
7. Cannot change or test web (HTTP) port
8. Cannot send test emails
9. Debug information suppressed if a XSL translation error occurs

Web interface protocols

The default behaviour is to allow all protocols TLS1, SSL2 and SSL3.

You can change the type of connection that TIM will respond to by adding the Registry String Value WWWSSLProtocol.

Note that this this is a case-insensitive string value with one of the following data values:

Registry String data value	Description
nossl	No SSL protocols, behave like a standard HTTP server
ssl23	SSL2 and SSL3 protocols only
ssl2	SSL2 protocol only
ssl3	SSL3 protocol only
tls1	TLS1 protocol only

Password complexity

You can configure TIM Enterprise web users with complex passwords to match your organisation's IT password policy.

To enable complex passwords, a Registry String Value PasswordComplexity must be added.

The use of the following data string values, allows you to configure how complex the passwords are:

Each part of the complexity string is defined by a pair of characters, a single character denoting the type of policy, immediately followed by a numeric character (0-9) stipulating how many characters of that type are required to satisfy the password policy.

The Type characters are as follows:-

• A:  Upper- or lower-case characters
• a:  Lower-case characters
• !:  Symbol characters
• #:  Numeric characters

For example, to impose a restriction of at least 6 characters with two numbers, the following Registry entry could be used:-

Automatic expiry of Web user passwords

You can force Web users to change the password after a predetermined age has been set. Note that this is a system wide setting.

The server running TIM Enterprise will email the web user advising that a password change is required. The web user must have an email address configured for notification to take place.

If the password is not changed by the expiry date then the account is automatically disabled.