Term Paper on

How registry is helpful in managing security.

• Introduction
The registry is the heart and soul of MS Windows XP. In other
words, The registry contains the configuration data that makes
the operating system work. The registry enables developers to
organize configuration data in ways that are impossible with
other mechanisms, such as INI files. It's behind just about every
feature in Windows XP that you think is cool. More
importantly, it enables you to customize Windows XP in ways
you can't through the user interface.

Windows XP and every application that runs on MS's latest

desktop operating system do absolutely nothing without
consulting the registry first. When you double-click a file,
Windows XP consults the registry to figure out what to do with
it. When you install a device, Windows XP assigns resources to
the device based on information in the registry and then stores
the device's configuration in the registry. When you run an
application such as MS Word 2002, the application looks up
your preferences in the registry

• Windows Registry
1
The Registry has to be one of the least understood aspects of the
Windows operating system family. Even seasoned professionals
approach it with a degree of caution, knowing that a wrong
entry can potentially wreak havoc on the system. Description of
the registry.

The registry as a central hierarchical database used in Microsoft

Windows used to store information that is necessary to
configure the system for one or more users, applications and
hardware devices. The Registry contains information that
Windows continually references during operation, such as
profiles for each user, the applications installed on the computer
and the types of documents that each can create, property sheet
settings for folders and application icons, what hardware exists
on the system, and the ports that are being used. The Registry
replaces most of the text-based .ini files that are used in
Windows 3.x and MS-DOS configuration files, such as the
Autoexec.bat and Config.sys.

• Overview of Registry

The Registry was introduced as a way out of the “INI files

mess” that plagued early versions of Windows. Configuration
information regarding the operating system, application files,
hardware, and soon were stored in INI files scattered all over the
system. For example, when an application is installed, it needs
to know various parameters regarding the operating system and
the available hardware. Much of this information is common to
other applications as well.

However, if there was any change in the hardware or operating

system software, updating the application’s INI files used to be
hell. The Registry was conceived as a way out of this madness.
1
It is a hierarchical database that stores information regarding the
hardware, operating system software, application software,
users preferences and system preferences.

The hierarchy separates the machine information, user

information and the software information into logically discrete
units that can be manipulated with greater ease. Any changes
made by users, the operating system, newly installed software,
and hardware are all updated and reflected in the Registry.

During system startup, Windows uses the registry to get

configuration data regarding the hardware, software and other
peripherals that have been configured. It also maintains a
backup copy of the registry with which the system had
successfully started up last. Hence, if it encounters a problem
with the current startup, it can then use the configuration
information from the backup to attempt to start the system.
Some of the information stored in the registry is specific to the
particular startup session only, and is mostly user-specific
Physically.

The Registry information in XP is stored in multiple files in the

System32\Config folder of the operating system (or root) folder
usually C:\Windows or C:\WINNT. These files cannot be edited
directly; they have to be accessed through a Registry- editing
program such as Regedit.exe or Regedt32.exe

• Registry Hives

A registry hive is a group of keys, sub keys, and values in the

registry that has a set of supporting files that contain backups of
its data. The supporting files for all hives except
HKEY_CURRENT_USER are in %SystemRoot
%\System32\Configfolder on Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000,
Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Vista. The
1
 supporting files for HKEY_CURRENT_USER are in the
%System Root%\Profiles\Username folder.

The file name extensions of the files in these folders indicate the
type of data that they contain. Also, the lack of an extension
may sometimes indicate the type of data that they contain..

Registry hive Supporting files

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SAM
Sam,Sam.log,Sam.sav
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Security Security,
Security.log, Security.sav
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software
Software,Software.sav
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System
System,System.alt HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG
System,System.alt,System.log
HKEY_USERS\DEFAULT Default,
Default.log, Default.sav

In Windows 98, the registry files are named User.dat and

System.dat. In Windows Millennium Edition, the registry files
are named Classes.dat, User.dat, and System.dat.

• Managing Security

Security has become one of the most urgent issues for many
organizations. It is an essential requirement for doing business
in a globally networked economy and for achieving
organizational goals and mission. But it is no small task. The
technical and environmental complexity of today’s
organizations and the ever-increasing dependence on technology
to drive and automate processes and create competitive
1
advantages make security a challenging activity. Adding to this
complexity is a growing list of vulnerabilities and increasingly
sophisticated threats to which organizations are subjected on a
daily basis.

Organizations can no longer be effective in managing security

from the technical sidelines. Security lives in an organizational
and operational context, and thus cannot be managed effectively
as a stand-alone discipline. Because security is a business
problem, the organization must activate, coordinate, deploy, and
direct many of its existing core competencies to work together
to provide effective solutions. And to sustain success, security at
an enterprise level requires that the organization move toward a
security management process that is strategic, systematic, and
repeatable—in other words, efficient at using security resources
and effective at meeting security goals on a consistent basis.

Managing for enterprise security defines a disciplined and

structured means for realizing these objectives. This report
presents the interim results of work done by members of the
Networked Systems Survivability Program at the Software
Engineering Institute in exploring these issues. The authors
offer a view of the changing environment in which security
must be performed and, from their field work and research,
itemize characteristics of common existing approaches to
security that limit effectiveness and success. A “desired state” as
a security target for the organization is outlined, and the
organizational transformation that the authors believe is
essential for approaching security as a business problem is
presented.

• Managing the user registry with many types

1
Manage your user registry by running various update and/or
delete tasks after you have configured the user registry as part of
the installation and deployment process.

Initial security configuration is part of the installation

instructions. This is a change from previous versions of the
information center. The information in this section assumes you
have already configured the user registry as part of the
installation and deployment process. If you are looking for
instructions to initially setup your user registry, refer to the
Installing Web Sphere Portal section of the information.
If you are running any of the following tasks after setting up
your clustered production environment, we will need to run an
additional task to update the security settings on the secondary
nodes, see Configuring security after cluster creation for
information.

• Enabling application groups

Application groups is a concept that allows you to define user

groups within the database user registry with members (users or
groups) contained in the federated LDAP user registry you
configured.

Run the wp-create-db task to add all required federated database

user registries and run the wp-create-ldap task to add all
required federated LDAP user registries to meet your business
requirements before enabling application groups. You must also
set the Group entity type to the database user registry and the
Person entity type to the LDAP user registry.

You can use application groups in the following scenarios:

 Read-only LDAP
If you have a read-only LDAP, you cannot change the group
membership of users and groups. If you need to define
access rights for certain users that are in different groups, you
1
 can create an Application group for these users with the required
access rights.
 Special group setup for Web Sphere Portal
In this scenario you need to setup a special group hierarchy
that is only used by WebSphere Portal and not by other
applications that access your LDAP server. This can help you
apply special access control rules just for WebSphere
Portal because the roles assigned to the Application Group also
apply to all of its members.

Perform the following steps to enable application groups:

1. Run the following task to enable application groups.

2. where ldapid is the value
specifiedin federated.ldap.id when running the wp-create-
ldap task and where dbid is the value specified
in federated.db.id when running the wp-create-db task.
3. Perform the following steps to stop and restart the server1
and WebSphere_Portal servers, where server1 is the name of
theWebSphere Application Server and WebSphere_Portal is the
name of the WebSphere Portal server.
a. Open a command prompt and change to the
following directory:
 Windows: wp_profile_root\bin
 UNIX: wp_profile_root/
bin
b.Enter the following command to stop the WebSphere
Application Server:
 Windows: stopServer.bat server1
-username admin_userid - password admin_password
 UNIX: ./stopServer.sh server1
-username admin_userid -password admin_password
1
  i5/OS: stopServer server1 -username admin_userid -
password admin_password
c. Enter the following command to stop
the WebSphere_Portal server, where WebSphere_Portal is the
name of the WebSphere Portal server:
 Windows: stopServer.bat WebSphere_Portal -username ad
min_userid -password admin_password
 UNIX: ./stopServer.sh WebSphere_Portal -username admin
_userid -password admin_password
 i5/OS: stopServer WebSphere_Portal -
username admin_userid -password admin_password
d. Enter the following command to start the WebSphere
Application Server:
 Windows: startServer.bat server1
 UNIX: ./startServer.sh server1
e. Enter the following command to
startthe WebSphere_Portal server,
where WebSphere_Portal is the name of the WebSphere
Portal server:
Windows: startServer.bat WebSphere_Portal

 UNIX: ./startServerhere_Portal
 i5/OS: startServer WebSphere_Portal

• Managing your user registry on AIX

After installing and deploying Web Sphere Portal, which
includes installing and configuring the user registry, you can
manage the user registry by running various update and/or
delete tasks. These tasks include, but are not limited to, adding a
property extension database, updating or deleting the entity
type, and deleting the registry.

Perform the following tasks to configure security:

1
 • Updating your user registry on AIX
After deploying Web Sphere Portal, you may need to
make adjustments to your standalone LDAP user registry
or to your federated user repository configurations. You
can update these configurations to achieve the proper user
registry configuration.

• Deleting your user registry configurations on AIX

You may find that you no longer need some of the LDAP
entity types, realms, realm base entries, repositories, etc.
that you created. You can delete these configurations to
achieve the proper user registry configuration.

• Restoring the VMM setup with a federated file

repository on AIX
If your business needs change or something happens to
make your user registry configuration inoperable, you can
run the wp-restore-default-repository-configuration task
to restore the default VMM setup with a federated file
repository, which will allow you to reconfigure your user
registry to meet your business needs. The task deletes all
existing repositories, creates a new realm, and configures
a file repository in VMM. The task also creates a new
user and a new user group, which is set to portal and
WAS administrators.

• Managing your user registry on an HP-UX

In this which includes installing and configuring the user

registry, you can manage the user registry by running various
update and/or delete tasks. These tasks include, but are not
limited to, adding a property extension database, updating or
deleting the entity type, and deleting the registry.

Perform the following tasks to configure security:

1
 • Updating your user registry on an HP-UX
You may need to make adjustments to your standalone
LDAP user registry or to your federated user repository
configurations. You can update these configurations to
achieve the proper user registry configuration.

• Deleting your user registry configurations on an HP-

UX
You may find that you no longer need some of the LDAP
entity types, realms, realm base entries, repositories, etc.
that you created. You can delete these configurations to
achieve the proper user registry configuration.

• Restoring the VMM setup with a federated file

repository on HP-UX
If your business needs change or something happens to
make your user registry configuration inoperable, you can
run the wp-restore-default-repository-configuration task
to restore the default VMM setup with a federated file
repository, which will allow you to reconfigure your user
registry to meet your business needs. The task deletes all
existing repositories, creates a new realm, and configures
a file repository in VMM. The task also creates a new
user and a new user group, which is set to portal and
WAS administrators.

• Managing your user registry on i5/OS

In this we includes installing and configuring the user registry,

you can manage the user registry by running various update
and/or delete tasks. These tasks include, but are not limited to,
adding a property extension database, updating or deleting the
entity type, and deleting the registry.

Perform the following tasks to configure security:

1
 • Updating your user registry on i5/OS
we may need to make adjustments to your standalone
LDAP user registry or to your federated user repository
configurations. You can update these configurations to
achieve the proper user registry configuration.

• Deleting your user registry configurations on i5/OS

we may find that you no longer need some of the LDAP
entity types, realms, realm base entries, repositories, etc.
that you created. You can delete these configurations to
achieve the proper user registry configuration.

• Restoring the VMM setup with a federated file

repository on i5/OS
If your business needs change or something happens to
make your user registry configuration inoperable, you can
run the wp-restore-default-repository-configuration task
to restore the default VMM setup with a federated file
repository, which will allow you to reconfigure your user
registry to meet your business needs. The task deletes all
existing repositories, creates a new realm, and configures
a file repository in VMM. The task also creates a new
user and a new user group, which is set to portal and
WAS administrators.

• Managing your user registry on Linux

In which includes installing and configuring the user registry,

you can manage the user registry by running various update
and/or delete tasks. These tasks include, but are not limited to,
adding a property extension database, updating or deleting the
entity type, and deleting the registry.

Perform the following tasks to configure security:

1
 • Updating your user registry on Linux
After deploying Web Sphere Portal, you may need to
make adjustments to your standalone LDAP user registry
or to your federated user repository configurations. You
can update these configurations to achieve the proper user
registry configuration.

• Deleting your user registry configurations on Linux

After deploying IBM WebSphere Portal, you may find
that you no longer need some of the LDAP entity types,
realms, realm base entries, repositories, etc. that you
created. You can delete these configurations to achieve
the proper user registry configuration.

• Restoring the VMM setup with a federated file

repository on Linux
If your business needs change or something happens to
make your user registry configuration inoperable, you can
run the wp-restore-default-repository-configuration task
to restore the default VMM setup with a federated file
repository, which will allow you to reconfigure your user
registry to meet your business needs. The task deletes all
existing repositories, creates a new realm, and configures
a file repository in VMM. The task also creates a new
user and a new user group, which is set to portal and
WAS administrators.

• Managing your user registry on Solaris

In which includes installing and configuring the user registry,

you can manage the user registry by running various update
and/or delete tasks. These tasks include, but are not limited to,
adding a property extension database, updating or deleting the
entity type, and deleting the registry.

Perform the following tasks to configure security:

1
 • Updating your user registry on Solaris
we may need to make adjustments to your standalone
LDAP user registry or to your federated user repository
configurations. You can update these configurations to
achieve the proper user registry configuration.

• Deleting your user registry configurations on Solaris

we may find that you no longer need some of the LDAP
entity types, realms, realm base entries, repositories, etc.
that you created. You can delete these configurations to
achieve the proper user registry configuration.

• Restoring the VMM setup with a federated file

repository on Solaris
If your business needs change or something happens to
make your user registry configuration inoperable, you can
run the wp-restore-default-repository-configuration task
to restore the default VMM setup with a federated file
repository, which will allow you to reconfigure your user
registry to meet your business needs. The task deletes all
existing repositories, creates a new realm, and configures
a file repository in VMM. The task also creates a new
user and a new user group, which is set to portal and
WAS administrators.

• Managing your user registry on Windows

After installing and deploying Web Sphere Portal, which

includes installing and configuring the user registry, you can
manage the user registry by running various update and/or
delete tasks. These tasks include, but are not limited to, adding a
property extension database, updating or deleting the entity
type, and deleting the registry.
1
Perform the following tasks to configure security:

• Updating your user registry on Windows

we may need to make adjustments to your standalone
LDAP user registry or to your federated user repository
configurations. You can update these configurations to
achieve the proper user registry configuration.

• Deleting your user registry configurations on

Windows
we may find that you no longer need some of the LDAP
entity types, realms, realm base entries, repositories, etc.
that you created. You can delete these configurations to
achieve the proper user registry configuration.

• Restoring the VMM setup with a federated file

repository on Windows
If your business needs change or something happens to
make your user registry configuration inoperable, you can
run the wp-restore-default-repository-configuration task
to restore the default VMM setup with a federated file
repository, which will allow you to reconfigure your user
registry to meet your business needs. The task deletes all
existing repositories, creates a new realm, and configures
a file repository in VMM. The task also creates a new
user and a new user group, which is set to portal and
WAS administrators.

• BIBLOGRAPHY
Encyclopedia:

www.%%%%%.com
www.******.com
1