NetBackup and Veritas Appliances Hardening Guide

Last Published:
Product(s): Appliances (10.3, 5.3, 4.0), NetBackup (10.3, 5.3, 4.0)
Platform: Flex Appliance OS,NetBackup Appliance OS,Linux,Windows,UNIX
  1. Top recommendations to improve your NetBackup and Veritas appliances security posture
    1.  
      Introduction
    2.  
      Keeping all systems and software updated
    3.  
      Enabling multifactor authentication
    4.  
      Enabling multiperson authorization
    5.  
      Increasing the security level
    6.  
      Implementing an immutable data vault
    7.  
      Securing credentials
    8.  
      Reducing network exposure
    9.  
      Enabling encryption
    10.  
      Enabling catalog protection
    11.  
      Enabling malware scanning and anomaly detection
    12.  
      Enabling security observability
    13.  
      Restricting user access
    14.  
      Configuring a sign-in banner
  2. Steps to protect Flex Appliance
    1.  
      About Flex Appliance hardening
    2. Managing multifactor authentication
      1.  
        Configuring or reconfiguring multifactor authentication
      2.  
        Enforcing multifactor authentication
    3.  
      Configuring the multi-factor authentication on NetBackup primary and media server instance
    4.  
      Configuring the multi-factor authentication on NetBackup WORM storage server instance
    5. Managing single sign-on (SSO)
      1.  
        Managing identity providers (IDPs)
      2.  
        Importing single sign-on (SSO) users
    6.  
      Managing user authentication with smart cards or digital certificates
    7. About lockdown mode
      1.  
        Changing the lockdown mode
    8.  
      Using network access control
    9.  
      Using an external certificate
    10.  
      Forwarding logs
    11.  
      Creating a NetBackup WORM storage server instance
    12. Configuring an isolated recovery environment using the web UI
      1.  
        Configuring the allowed subnets
      2.  
        Configuring the reverse connections
      3.  
        Configuring the reverse replication schedule
      4.  
        Adding a replication operation to SLP at the production primary server
    13.  
      Protecting the NetBackup catalog on a WORM storage server
    14.  
      Using a sign-in banner
  3. Steps to protect NetBackup Appliance
    1.  
      About NetBackup Appliance hardening
    2.  
      About multifactor authentication
    3. About single sign-on (SSO) authentication and authorization
      1.  
        Configure single sign-on (SSO) for a NetBackup Appliance
    4. About authentication using smart cards and digital certificates
      1.  
        2FA
      2.  
        Smart card Authentication for NetBackup Web UI
      3.  
        Smart card authentication for NetBackup Appliance Web UI
      4.  
        Smart card authentication for NetBackup Appliance Shell Menu
      5.  
        Configure role-based access control
      6.  
        Configure authentication for a smart card or digital certificate for the NetBackup Web UI
    5.  
      Disable user access to the NetBackup appliance operating system
    6.  
      About Network Access Control
    7. About data encryption
      1.  
        KMS support
    8.  
      FIPS 140-2 conformance for NetBackup Appliance
    9.  
      About implementing external certificates
    10.  
      About antimalware protection
    11. About forwarding logs to an external server
      1.  
        Uploading certificates for TLS
      2.  
        Enabling log forwarding
    12.  
      Creating the appliance login banner
  4. Steps to protect NetBackup
    1.  
      About NetBackup hardening
    2. About multifactor authentication
      1.  
        Configure multi-factor authentication for your user account
      2.  
        Enforce multi-factor authentication for all users
    3. Configure NetBackup for single sign-on (SSO)
      1.  
        Configure the SAML KeyStore
      2.  
        Configure the SAML keystore and add and enable the IDP configuration
      3.  
        Enroll the NetBackup primary server with the IDP
    4. Configure user authentication with smart cards or digital certificates
      1.  
        Configure smart card authentication with a domain
      2.  
        Configure smart card authentication without a domain
    5. Workflow to configure multi-person authorization for NetBackup operations
      1.  
        NetBackup operations that need multi-person authorization
      2.  
        RBAC roles and permissions for multi-person authorization
      3.  
        Configure multi-person authorization
    6. Access codes
      1.  
        Request CLI access through web UI authentication
      2.  
        Approve the CLI access request of another user
    7. Workflow to configure immutable and indelible data
      1.  
        About configuring disk pool storage
      2.  
        Use WORM setting
      3.  
        Creating a backup policy
    8. Add a configuration for an external CMS server
      1.  
        Add a credential for CyberArk
    9. Configuring an isolated recovery environment on a NetBackup BYO media server
      1.  
        Configuring A.I.R. for replicating backup images from production environment to IRE BYO environment
    10. About FIPS support in NetBackup
      1.  
        Enable FIPS mode on NetBackup during installation
      2.  
        Enable FIPS mode on a NetBackup host after installation
      3.  
        Enable FIPS mode for the NetBackup Authentication Broker service
      4.  
        Enable FIPS mode for the NetBackup Administration Console
      5.  
        NB_FIPS_MODE option for NetBackup servers and clients
    11.  
      Installing KMS
    12. Workflow for external KMS configuration
      1.  
        Validating KMS credentials
      2.  
        Configuring KMS credentials
      3.  
        Configuring KMS
      4.  
        Creating keys in an external KMS
      5. Workflow to configure data-in-transit encryption
        1.  
          Configure the global data-in-transit encryption setting
        2. Configure the DTE mode on a client
          1.  
            DTE_CLIENT_MODE for clients
        3. How DTE configuration settings work in various NetBackup operations
          1.  
            Backup
          2.  
            Restore
          3.  
            MSDP backup, restore, and optimized duplication
          4.  
            Universal-Share policy backup
          5.  
            Catalog backup and recovery
          6.  
            Duplication
          7.  
            Synthetic backup
          8.  
            Verify
          9.  
            Import
          10.  
            Replication
        4.  
          Configure the DTE mode on the media server
        5. Modify the DTE mode on a backup image
          1.  
            DTE_IGNORE_IMAGE_MODE for NetBackup servers
    13. Workflow to use external certificates for NetBackup host communication
      1. About certificate revocation lists for external CA
        1.  
          How CRLs from ECA_CRL_PATH are used
        2.  
          How CRLs from CDP URLs are used
      2.  
        Configure an external certificate for the NetBackup web server
      3.  
        Configuring the primary server to use an external CA-signed certificate
      4. Configuring an external certificate for a clustered primary server
        1. Configuration options for external CA-signed certificates for a virtual name
          1.  
            CLUSTER_ECA_CERT_PATH for clustered primary server
          2.  
            CLUSTER_ECA_TRUST_STORE_PATH for clustered primary server
          3.  
            CLUSTER_ECA_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH for clustered primary server
          4.  
            CLUSTER_ECA_KEY_PASSPHRASEFILE for clustered primary server
      5. Configuring a NetBackup host (media server, client, or cluster node) to use an external CA-signed certificate after installation
        1.  
          Enrolling an external certificate for a remote host
      6. Configuration options for external CA-signed certificates
        1. ECA_CERT_PATH for NetBackup servers and clients
          1.  
            Specifying Windows certificate store for ECA_CERT_PATH
        2.  
          ECA_TRUST_STORE_PATH for NetBackup servers and clients
        3.  
          ECA_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH for NetBackup servers and clients
        4.  
          ECA_KEY_PASSPHRASEFILE for NetBackup servers and clients
        5.  
          ECA_CRL_CHECK for NetBackup servers and clients
        6.  
          ECA_CRL_PATH for NetBackup servers and clients
        7.  
          ECA_CRL_PATH_SYNC_HOURS for NetBackup servers and clients
        8.  
          ECA_CRL_REFRESH_HOURS for NetBackup servers and clients
        9.  
          ECA_DISABLE_AUTO_ENROLLMENT for NetBackup servers and clients
        10.  
          ECA_DR_BKUP_WIN_CERT_STORE for NetBackup servers and clients
        11.  
          MANAGE_WIN_CERT_STORE_PRIVATE_KEY option for NetBackup primary servers
    14.  
      Guidelines for managing the primary server NetBackup catalog
    15. About protecting the MSDP catalog
      1. About the MSDP shadow catalog
        1.  
          Changing the MSDP shadow catalog path
        2.  
          Changing the MSDP shadow catalog schedule
        3.  
          Changing the number of MSDP catalog shadow copies
      2.  
        About the MSDP catalog backup policy
    16. How to set up malware scanning
      1.  
        Prerequisites for a scan host
      2.  
        Configuring a new scan host pool
    17. About backup anomaly detection
      1.  
        Detecting backup anomalies on the primary server
      2.  
        Detecting backup anomalies on the media server
      3.  
        Configure backup anomaly detection settings
      4.  
        View backup anomalies
    18.  
      Send audit events to system logs
    19.  
      Send audit events to log forwarding endpoints
    20.  
      Display a banner to users when they sign in

Configuring KMS credentials

To configure external KMS in NetBackup, you need to first configure the credentials that NetBackup uses to authenticate with the external KMS server. As part of this step, you need to specify the path for public key Infrastructure (PKI) artifacts that are required for certificate-based authentication. The following information is required:

  • Certificate file path

  • Keystore file path

  • Trust store file path

  • Passphrase or passphrase file path

Note:

After external KMS configuration or keys are updated, NetBackup may take several minutes to consume appropriate key in backup or restore workflow. This is because NetBackup caches the key for 10 minutes (for external KMS). To immediately consume a key, cache can be cleared by executing the following command on the respective media server:

bpclntcmd -clear_host_cache

To configure KMS credentials

  • Run the nbkmscmd -configureCredential command:

    This command creates a copy of files that are provided on the command-line interface and stores them into the credentials database. When the command is successfully executed, you can delete these files if you do not need them. NetBackup does not track any updates to these files. If the certificate needs to be updated, typically in case of renewal, you need to run the nbkmscmd -updateCredential command again with new certificate files.

    nbkmscmd -configureCredential -credName credential_name -certPath certificate_file_path -privateKeyPath private_key_file_path -trustStorePath CA_certificate_file_path [-passphrasePath private_key_passphrase_file_path] [-crlCheckLevel LEAF | CHAIN | DISABLE] [-server master_server_name] [-description description]