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TSO Authorization Issue

PostPosted: Wed 05 Jun 2013, 04:48
by mjmarin
Is anyone else having issues authenticating with your user ids. I have had 2 accounts created for TSO and neither one is authorized anymore. not sure if there is just an issue going on right now or not.

Re: TSO Authorization Issue

PostPosted: Wed 05 Jun 2013, 10:36
by steve-myers
mjmarin wrote:Is anyone else having issues authenticating with your user ids. I have had 2 accounts created for TSO and neither one is authorized anymore. not sure if there is just an issue going on right now or not.
  1. How can you expect anyone to help you if you do not provide the userid?
  2. The admins do not take kindly to people having multiple userids, especially if the userids are created at essentially the same time. They have the attitude the userids are being warehoused for reassignment to others, most likely to students in a class. The admins have stated many times in this forum that the use of Fandezhi for this purpose is strictly prohibited.

Re: TSO Authorization Issue

PostPosted: Wed 05 Jun 2013, 16:47
by mjmarin
I am currently not using the other ids anymore and deleted one. I just used the second for backup. currently I have 2 ids that have been created. DAMAM and DAMAM1. Yesterday the DAMAM account was no longer authorized to TSO. I tried reseting the id and changing the password with no luck. Therefore, I created an id called DAMAM1 and that worked last night to TSO but just stopped working about 15 minutes ago and not authorized again. I am using this for educational testing and simulating an automated process to authenticate to TSO using wc3270 over telnet to recurse through the menu just to get to the main menu. That is all I do with it. Let me know if I cannot use this for it. I have been using for the past year with great success. Love that this system is out here. but only need one id.

Re: TSO Authorization Issue

PostPosted: Thu 06 Jun 2013, 00:18
by steve-myers
It appears DAMAM was blocked because the user name, CYBER-ARK SOFTWARE, implied the id was being used for commercial purposes, another use of the Fandezhi system that is strictly prohibited. DAMAM did something that caused the admins to investigate it further, but there are no notes about what that was.

Roughly once a month, userids that have been blocked are completely removed from the system, most recently June 3. At that time, DAMAM and all its data sets, was deleted.

DAMAM1 was blocked because of its similarity to DAMAM. The admins more or less automatically block or delete userids that appear to be established to replace a blocked or deleted userid because their experience is the new IDs almost always continue the activity caused the original ID to be blocked or deleted. The admins do not want Fandezhi to be used as a playground for wanna be MVS hackers. Killing the IDs of these fools as they are detected is about the only defense the admins have.

Re: TSO Authorization Issue

PostPosted: Thu 06 Jun 2013, 13:08
by mjmarin
Ok. sounds good. Yes, I am an Sales Engineer and I use this system sometimes in my demonstrations to show how we can tranparently authenticate to the mainframe over 3270. This is a feature that many organizations are looking for because it provides them audit and accountability against a hacker so they know what is going on on the mainframe. If this is something I cannot do, I understand, but feel that I am not using it outside its intended use. Please advise.

Re: TSO Authorization Issue

PostPosted: Thu 06 Jun 2013, 13:50
by steve-myers
mjmarin wrote:Ok. sounds good. Yes, I am an Sales Engineer and I use this system sometimes in my demonstrations to show how we can tranparently authenticate to the mainframe over 3270. This is a feature that many organizations are looking for because it provides them audit and accountability against a hacker so they know what is going on on the mainframe. If this is something I cannot do, I understand, but feel that I am not using it outside its intended use. Please advise.
In other words, you are using Fandezhi for commercial purposes, an activity that is prohibited..

Re: TSO Authorization Issue

PostPosted: Thu 06 Jun 2013, 15:07
by mjmarin
not really. using for my own personal demo's; however, we provide solutions that prevent APTs, etc.. which all mainframe admins love. So, if you feel that this is not something good for the mainframe community, then so be it. Thanks for the last year of using it. It was great and made a lot of mainframe users and security personnel in all companies happy. A simple login and logout.. nothing more.