Leland,
I haven't verified it but if what you posit occurs, and you could access 
OPERATOR's console, how about:
CP SET SECUSER RACFVM *                     *Make OPERATOR secuser of RACFVM
CP SEND RACFVM blah blah command to unrevoke yourid  *I don't know the command

or
CP XAUTOLOG racf_admin_id
CP SET SECUSER racf_admin_id *
CP SEND racf_admin_id    blah blah command to unrevoke yourid

If all else fails, disable RACF and use the CP directory passwords for MAINT, 
and others (you know what they are, right?) and restore a backup of RACF 
database in which yourid's not revoked (and you remember your logon password 
restored by the old backup)
CP SEND RACFVM SET RACF INACTIVE  and then reply YES to it's prompt to OPERATOR





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-----Original Message-----

From: The IBM z/VM Operating System on behalf of Rob van der Heij
Sent: Sat 7/12/2008 4:54 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: RACF and protecting against the unknown
 
On Sat, Jul 12, 2008 at 8:03 AM, Leland Lucius <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> We have removed the password from MAINT and the 2 of us sysprog wannabes
> have setup RACF to allow us to LOGONBY to MAINT.  Works beautifully. But,
> what would happen if some malicious individual decided to attempt sufficient
> invalid logons to cause us our IDs to be revoked.  How would we ever get
> back to MAINT?  Now, add in the security admins ID to the mix.  Then what?

Yep. First, the idea is that userids of the individuals who have
logonby is not disclosed, so chances of hitting (all) of them is
harder (except that we found Q BYUSER practical, which does reveal
this kind of info).
As a next safety net, you could set up a group special would could
resume you if you get revoked, or have OPERATOR be group special of
IBMUSER (assuming OPERATOR will be logged on already while the system
is running). This stuff is audited, so it's not that someone could
sneak in like this without showing.

> Also, any war stories about getting into a situation where no one could log
> on due to RACF being unavailable?  Should we be concerned about a case like
> this?  What recovery is possible?

Yes... our security officer started to look at Consul/RACF listings
and started to remove profiles that his software did not understand,
and then activated classes that he felt were "good to enable" and then
remembered his appointment with the dentist that afternoon, so he left
for the weekend. I was paged in the weekend when the system would not
come up after the IPL. I believe I have been there several hours to
get the system going again.

Rob

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