Sri h Kolusu kindly wrote:

>DFSORT already have some examples of creating ICETOOL reports based on output 
>files from the RACF database unload utility (IRRDBU00) or the SMF data unload 
>utility (IRRADU00). The SYS1.SAMPLIB member IRRICE contains DFSORT statements 
>for record selection and ICETOOL statements for report formatting for a wide 
>variety of reports.

I'm absolutely very familiar with them and have reviewed them before I posted. 
But Many Thanks.
 
>Also Mark Nelson from RACF has given a presentation at share "As Cool as  Ice: 
>Analyzing Your RACF Data Using DFSORT™ and ICETOOL" which can be found here 

I also have this ice cool presentation. ;-)
 
>Also RACF has a downloadable utility JCL to create reports using DFSORT. 

Thanks. I need to hover there again, was there many moons ago.
 
>I hope this will get you started and if you still need help with creating a 
>specific report, 

I don't need help with writing. I am asking whether it is a good thing or not 
to protect individual DFSORT and ICETOOL commands/keywords just like you do it 
with DFDSS ADMINISTRATOR keyword for example.

From all the online and off-list comments I see and agree: It is a bad idea. 
Just protect the data (input+output) and be finished. I will tell my auditors 
it is not a good idea to try to protect tools and commands+keywords.


John McKown wrote:
>To me, DFSORT/ICETOOL is basically a "programming language" which is used to 
>read some input, transform, and produce output.

Good analogy. DFSORT is a ‘programming language’ used to manipulate data.

Shane Ginnane wrote:
>Both banks as it happened, but shows your folks just need to get properly 
>motivated.

and Ed Finnell wrote:
>It goes further nowadays. After it's processed by a program it's on spool  or 
>report writer and can be modified again. Over on AFP list one group wanted to 
>change leading spaces to '*' maybe in a PAGEDEF. It was pointed out that if 
>you allowed this somebody else could change leading spaces to '9'.. The big 
>cut sheet all-in-ones also serve as copiers! 

Ouch. And so on with all subsequent parts of data.

Lizette Koehler wrote:
>Would you not protect the input (SORTIN) and output(SORTOUT) with RACF from 
>update where appropriate? Like any 4GL, DFSORT control cards is not where I 
>would rely on security.  It would be with the files themselves.

and Martin Packer wrote:
>Just this week I had a discussion with an IBM specialist supporting a European 
>customer where the companion topic of stopping sysprogs from subverting SMF 
>records came up. Protect the data is the key. And SMF 15 might be useful for 
>tracking updates.

and retired mainframer wrote:
>Based on your examples, it appears the input data to SORT is produced by the 
>RACF database and SMF unload tools. 

Indeed. I agree with all, you protect the data, not the tools used. 

>Why should some further minor tweaks be a concern? If the auditors want the 
>unvarnished facts, they should be working from a database dump and the raw 
>SMF. 

Oh yes, I can always demonstrate that I can repeat the 
reporting/sorting/dumping using same source of ‘unvarnished facts’.

Many thanks to all. I really appreciate your ice cool ideas and suggestions. 
Thanks for sorting me out! ;-)

Groete / Greetings
Elardus Engelbrecht!
“When getting advice, believe half of what you read and none of what you hear.” 
;-)

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