Controlling Access to System Hardware

You can protect the physical machine by requiring a password to gain access to the hardware settings. You can also protect the machine by preventing a user from using the abort sequence to leave the windowing system.

How to Require a Password for Hardware Access

On an x86 system, the equivalent to protecting the PROM is to protect the BIOS. Refer to your machine's manuals for how to protect the BIOS.

1. Become superuser or assume a role that includes the Device Security profile, the Maintenance and Repair profile, or the System Administrator profile.

   The System Administrator profile includes the Maintenance and Repair profile. To create a role that includes the System Administrator profile and to assign the role to a user, see Configuring RBAC (Task Map).

2. In a terminal window, type the PROM security mode.

   # eeprom security-mode=command
   
   Changing PROM password:
   New password: <Type password>
   Retype new password: <Retype password>    

   Choose the value command or full. For more details, see the eeprom(1M) man page.

   If, when you type the preceding command, you are not prompted for a PROM password, the system already has a PROM password.

3. (Optional) To change the PROM password, type the following command:

   # eeprom security-password= Press Return
   Changing PROM password:
   New password: <Type password>
   Retype new password: <Retype password>

   The new PROM security mode and password are in effect immediately. However, they are most likely to be noticed at the next boot.

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   Caution - Do not forget the PROM password. The hardware is unusable without this password.

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How to Disable a System's Abort Sequence

Some server systems have a key switch. When the key switch is set in the secure position, the switch overrides the software keyboard abort settings. So, any changes that you make with the following procedure might not be implemented.

1. Assume the Primary Administrator role, or become superuser.

   The Primary Administrator role includes the Primary Administrator profile. To create the role and assign the role to a user, see Chapter 2, Working With the Solaris Management Console (Tasks), in System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.

2. Change the value of KEYBOARD_ABORT to disable.

   Comment out the enable line in the /etc/default/kbd file. Then, add a disable line:

   # cat /etc/default/kbd
   …
   # KEYBOARD_ABORT affects the default behavior of the keyboard abort
   # sequence, see kbd(1) for details.  The default value is "enable".
   # The optional value is "disable".  Any other value is ignored.
   …
   #KEYBOARD_ABORT=enable
   KEYBOARD_ABORT=disable

3. Update the keyboard defaults.

   # kbd -i