Chapter 5. Secure the Management Interfaces

Local interfaces are secured by a SASL contract between local clients and the server they connect to. This security mechanism is based on the client's ability to access the local filesystem. This is because access to the local filesystem would allow the client to add a user or otherwise change the configuration to thwart other security mechanisms. This adheres to the principle that if physical access to the filesystem is achieved, other security mechanisms are superfluous. The mechanism happens in four steps:

Remote clients, including local HTTP clients, use realm-based security. The default realm with the permissions to configure the JBoss EAP 6 instance remotely using the management interfaces is ManagementRealm. A script is provided which allows you to add users to this realm (or realms you create). For more information on adding users, see the Getting Started chapter of the JBoss EAP 6 Installation Guide. For each user, the username and a hashed password are stored in a file.

Even though the contents of the mgmt-users.properties are masked, the file must still be treated as a sensitive file. It is recommended that it be set to the file mode of 600, which gives no access other than read and write access by the file owner.