SAP GRC (Basic),

Biju (jays)

http://sapsecurity.info

Date : 16-Apr-2011

GRC Basic

Contents:
Time

Section

Topics

Introduction

Welcome
SAP Security Overview
SOX Overview
Access Control Solution Overview

Compliance Calibrator

Overview
Rules Architect
Risk analysis & Informer
Mitigation Controls
Alerts
Compliance Configuration

Firefighter

Overview

Access Enforcer

Overview
Module Breakdown
Process Walkthrough

Role Expert

Overview
Module Breakdown

GRC Basic

Example R/3 Role Design model

Business Processes

Security Design

Job:
General category
For jobs

Process

Sub-Process

Role

Sub-Process

Role
Role:
performs
one or more
transactions

Activity
Activity
Activity
Workstep
Workstep
Workstep

Role Mapping

GRC Basic

Transaction:
SAP worksteps

Composite
Role

Position:
performs
one or
more roles

Org Unit:
Division

Employee

SAP Security The major elements of the SAP authorization concept

Users
Composite Profiles
Simple profiles
Authorization Objects
Authorizations
Fields
Values (Activities, Organizational elements)
Transactions

SAP Security
To address this complexity and flexibility,
SAP has developed a solution called SAP GRCAccess Controls Suite.
We will guide through how CC addresses some
of these issues.

GRC Basic

User
UserProfile
Profile

Users

Roles

Object Access
and
Restrictions

Composite
Composite
Profile
Profile

Composite
Composite
Profile
Profile

Simple
Simple
Profile
Profile

Simple
Simple
Profile
Profile

Authorization
Authorization

Authorization
Authorization

Objects

Authorization
Transactions

Objects

Authorization
Transactions

Securing Financial Applications Systems for SOX Compliance

SOX.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 also called as Public Company Accounting Reform and
Investor Protection Act of 2002 and commonly called SOX or Sarbox in response to major
corporate scandals like Enron..
Enron Corporation was an American energy company based in Houston, Texas.
Enron figures in late 2001
Enron employed around 22,000 people (McLean & Elkind, 2003)
Claimed revenues of $111 billion in 2000
Fortune named Enron "America's Most Innovative Company" for six consecutive years
At the end of 2001
It was revealed that its reported financial condition was sustained substantially by
institutionalized, systematic, and creatively planned accounting fraud
Enron filed for bankruptcy protection in the Southern District of New York

GRC Basic

Some interesting facts

GRC Basic

Present access and authorizations approach

IT does not own the responsibility for proper segregation of duties. They cant understand hurdles on
business side, as they lack the collaboration tools and language to efficiently collaborate with the business
owners.
Lines of the business managers are responsible for SoD, but they lack the technical depth to manage user
access, so they rely on IT
Internal auditors are trying desperately to stay on top of the SoD issue. However with manually maintained
spreadsheets listing the access and authorizations of all employees, contractors, and partners and so on,
they can only perform a very limited audit at a very high cost.
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Sarbanes Oxley and SAP - Top 7 Control Deficiencies in SAP

1. Segregation of Duties - segregation of duties as the most important point of control focus or
deficiency.
2. Inconsistent Business Process Procedures - Business procedures not matching the actual process is
another problem area in many SAP implementations.
3. Unsecured Customized Programs - Many customized 'Z' transactions or 'Y' transactions built in to
suit the business process.
4.Unauthorized Access to SAP BASIS - Many companies make the mistake of giving access to
sensitive BASIS transactions like SE13, SE38, SM49, SU10, SU12, SM13, SC38, SM59, KE54 etc
to users in production.
Such unrestricted access can lead to a potential control deficiency under Sarbanes Oxley.
5. Unrestricted Posting Periods - Allowing unrestricted access to open Posting periods in SAP can
result in unauthorized entires in previous open periods. This can become a severe control deficiency
under SOX
6. SAP Access to Terminated Employees - SAP access had not been revoked for employees who had
been terminated. This can potentially lead to control deficiency
7. Database and OS Hardening - The data in SAP sits on databases like Oracle etc and SAP Portal as
such runs on an operating system. If databases and operating systems are not hardened, the whole
SAP environment is put at risk.
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GRC Governance Risk Compliance

SAP Compliance Calibrator

Business Challenges
- Identifying risks arising through user access privileges.
- Knowing when users have executed transactions that constitute a risk
- Developing solutions for risk management and control.
- Stopping risk from being introduced into the production system through change updates.
- Prohibiting and controlling access to critical basis, developer and sensitive business
transaction.
- Ensuring that mitigating controls exists for user access risks and are executed.
IT / Security Challenges
- Stopping risk from being introduced into the production system through change updates.
- Prohibiting and controlling access to critical basis, developer and sensitive business
transaction.
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IT Based Antifraud Controls - SOD & SAT

Segregation of duties in applications SOD
The basic premise of segregation of duties is that users should not be in a position to initiate and
authorize their own transactions.
Modern IT applications ERPs like SAP, Oracle Apps, J D Edwards, Peoplesoft can be configured based
on roles. .
Access to specific transactions in the system can be restricted based on user roles and profiles.
Segregation of duties in applications can act as a major antifraud controls and lead to better SOX
compliance.
Sensitive Access Controls SAT
SATs coupled with SODs can act as the foundation for IT based antifraud controls.
The other important antifraud control is restricting user access to sensitive transaction in the system.
From an IT perspective users have access to a lot of information such as payroll data, balance sheet,
profit and loss account etc.
This sensitive information can be misused. It is therefore important to restrict users access to this
sensitive information in applications.

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MM SoD Conflicts Sample data

SoD Controls (Functions that should be segragated)

Risks

RISK LEVEL

Post Goods Receipt and Post Payments

A user could post or change a fictitious or incorrect goods receipt

and set up a fraudulent automatic payment or create a fraudulent
check.

Post Goods Receipt and Process Outgoing Payments

A user could post or change a fictitious or incorrect goods receipt

and post a fraudulent payment or clear the invoice to hide the
deception.

Post Goods Receipt and Process Inventory

A user could post or change a fictitious or incorrect goods receipt

and create/change an inventory document/count to hide the
deception or clear the inventory count to hide the deception.

Post Goods Receipt and Process Inventory Documents

A user could post or change a fictitious or incorrect goods receipt

and create/change an inventory document/count to hide the
deception or clear the inventory count to hide the deception.

Post Goods Receipt and Goods Issue

A user could post or change a fictitious or incorrect goods receipt

and then use a goods issue to hide the deception. The vendor
would be paid for the excess recorded receipt.

Post Goods Receipt and Process Materials

A user could create or change a fictitious receipt and create/change

a material document to hide the deception.

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Compliance Calibrator Key Terms

Business Process Used to classify risks, rules and rule sets by business function e.g. Order to
Cash, Purchase to Pay, Record to Report are all types of Business Processes. All risks and functions
are assigned to business functions.

Function - Identifies the tasks an employee performs to accomplish a specific portion of their job
responsibilities. This can be analogous to a role, but more often a role comprises multiple functions.

Action- Known as Transactions in SAP. To perform a function, more than one action may be required
to be performed.

Permission Object in SAP, which form as part of Actions.

Risks Identify potential problems your enterprise may encounter, which could cause error or
irregularities within the system.

Rule Sets Ccategorize and aggregate the rules generated from a risk. when you define a risk, you
attribute one or more rule sets to that risk. Similar to business process.

SoD Segregation of Duties, are primary internal controls intended to prevent, or decrease the risk of
errors or regulatory irregularities, identify problems, and ensure corrective action is taken. This is
achieved by assuring no single individual has control over separate phases of a business transaction.

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Definitions Function, Business Process, Action,

Permissions & Activities

1
2
3

1. Function
2. Business process
3. Action
4. Permissions
5. Activities

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Process Overview
SAP Compliance Calibrator

Role
Maintenance
(preventative)

Request Role
change

Analyse &
Approve Role
change

Build
Change

Risk
Analysis

Approve
Change

Deploy
Change

SAP CC is used to identify SOD conflicts before the change enters production. This allows control leads to reject the
introduction of risk or assign / implement a mitigating control before risk is apparent.
Note: Rules have to be pre-defined before Risk Analysis is performed.
User
Provisioning

Identify
Risks

Request
Access

Business
Approval

Update
user

Execute
Controls
.

(preventative)

Deeper understanding of risks inherent in the security design allows business approvers to make a proactive choice as
to whether they allow a user to have an SOD risk or critical transaction.
Security
Controls
(detective)

Analyse
SOD
conflicts

..

Analyse
Critical
Transactions
..

Alert
SOD
violations

..

Alert
CT
usage

SAP CC is used to execute security controls for period review and approval for SOD conflict and critical transaction
risks. The alert monitoring can also be used to identify business or control leads when a SOD violation occurs or a
critical transaction is used.

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Rules Architect SOD risk

SAP Compliance Calibrator

Rules are created in compliance calibrator based on the risks you define.
Rules are logical constructions composed of a circumstance or condition, and the appropriate response to that
condition. This is commonly represented as an If-Then statement.
IF
Employee X can Create a Vendor &
Employee X can Authorize Pay vendor
Then
Employee X has been granted High Risk Conflicting Roles
This is an example of a SOD risk.

Risks
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Compliance
Calibrator

Rules

Rules Architect The Rules Library

SAP Compliance Calibrator
The core engine of SAP CC contains a rules library that maintains the risks for SOD conflicts. This library will contain conflicting
transactions, grouped into functions, including the object and activity settings and runs to 1000s of records.
For each identified risk the rules need to be configured so that the risk is properly recorded, in essence this means the removal of false
positives. False positives are identified when at the object level potential risk is not realized e.g. the action is to read only.
Building rule sets
1. Set up functions (groups of activities
that users perform to carry out their
role) by mapping transaction activities.
2. Map two or more functions together
to define a risk
3. SAP CC creates rules based on the
risks which are used for risk analysis
reporting and alert monitoring.
4. Business process can also be
defined and mapped to risks for ease
of reporting e.g. Finance Accounting.
5. Multiple rule sets can also be set up
to act as reporting filters, version
control and other uses.

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Rules Architect- Key Drivers

SAP Compliance Calibrator

Building rule sets can be complex and time consuming. Typically three distinct roles and
skills are involved.
Internal Controls Expert
Provides information on SOD risks, criticality and represents business (process) owners in decisions to mitigate or
remove risks.
SAP Functional Expert
Provides expertise on the business
process configuration in SAP , knowledge
on objects and activity values. Helps to set
the configuration data for the rule set
library. Helps identify false positives.
SAP CC Expert
Provides knowledge on rules
setting in SAP CC performing mass
upload changes and risk analysis.

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GRC Basic

Internal
Control
Expert

Rules
Generation

SAP
Functional
Expert

SAP
CC
Expert

Risk Analysis
SAP Compliance Calibrator

Once the rule set has been defined and implemented risk analysis can be performed to identify the SOD
conflict and critical transaction risks in the staging and production system.
Risk analysis can be performed at the user or role level. Risk Analysis and remediation is most efficient when
a structured authorizations concept is implemented that maps roles to job and people. In these
circumstance remedial efforts correct risks for large groups of users.
Risk Analysis can be performed:
1. During the project lifecycle before users are
allowed in the production system.
2. Before each change request for role
maintenance is deployed to production.
3. Before provisioning exceptional roles to
individual users
4. To execute periodic security controls.

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Risk Analysis Types of risks

Segregation of Duties (SoD) risk

A combination of two or more actions or permissions that, when assigned to a single employee, create a vulnerability. That is to say, in the case
of two conflicting actions an employee may have permission to perform one of these actions, but not both.
Critical Action risk
Certain actions are, by their nature, inherently risky. Any employee who has permission to perform one of these actions automatically poses a
risk. Defining a critical action risk ensures that any employee assigned this permission is identified by the risk analysis process.
Critical Permission risk
Just as some individual actions can be critical, the same is true for some permissions. Defining a critical permission risk ensures that risk analysis
identifies any employee who has been assigned an action that includes a potentially risky permission.
The severity of a risk can be categorized as either:
Low
Medium
High
Critical
You use the Risk Level to categorize risksand the rules they generateby severity. What determines, for example, a critical risk is according
to your company policies.

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Informer
Informer allows a appropriate user to access specific reports. In addition to the default report formats, there are specific user-selected
focus areas available on many of the reports.
Informer tab report types include:
Management View- Can view reports in the following types: Risk Violations, Users Analysis, Role Analysis, Comparisons,
Alerts, Rules Library, Controls Library
Risk Analysis- Performed to see if any User, Role, HR Object or Organization has access to two or more conflicting actions.
Audit Reports- Provides report headings covering different aspects of the enterprise. Each Audit report menu item contains links
to reports that may be user modified to fit needs requested.
Security Reports - Provides an access point for reports on every aspect of product and enterprise security compliance issue.
Background Job - Allows SoD conflicts to be analyzed for a large number of Users, Roles, HR Objects or Organizations.

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Informer
Compliance Calibrator provides Interactive visual analysis in the form of Bar charts, Pie Charts and Line Charts

By clicking upon
a certain chart
area, detailed
statistics are
accessed

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Informer
SAP Compliance Calibrator

You can generate reports for Users, User Groups, Roles, Profiles, HR Objects and Organizational Levels

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Mitigation Control
Mitigation Controls- Rather than remove the cause of the risk, you may want to control certain risk violations that you want available to specific users, roles,
or profiles.
Monitor ID - The ID of the User who is assigned as a Monitor, who is assigned the specific Controls.
Where risks are accepted in the system, a mitigating control should be implemented and executed. An example is a supervisory review and sign off.
SAP CC gives you the functionality to document the mitigating controls for each risk. Once documented and assigned to a Monitor the tool can be used to track
execution of the control or non compliance.
Many clients will have separate cross-enterprise process controls software and we suggest three options for implementation:
1)
Simplest option, identify risk as controlled. Risk is removed from risk reporting.
2)
Associate the risk with a mitigating control in an alternate repository e.g. process control software.
3)
Fully document the mitigating control within the SAP Compliance Calibrator.
A choice also exists on who to give responsibility for maintaining data in the SAP CC tool. This can be centralized in IT or Controls or fully distributed to the
business.

Controls Library option lists all the existing

Mitigation Controls (active/inactive). The
Controls Library displays the Controls by Risk
level and are sorted by:
qRisk
qRisk Level (Low, Medium, High)
qBusiness Unit
qMonitor
qUser, Role, Profiles, or HR Object
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Alerts Monitor
Compliance Calibrator includes functionality which can alert business and controls leads by email when a critical or
conflicting action is executed.
Alerts are available within the following risk areas:
Conflicting and Critical Actions When a user performs both transactions in an SOD rule or uses a critical
transaction.
Mitigation monitoring If a Monitor does not execute a control to a specified frequency then an alert will be
generated which is sent to the Monitor and visible to the control leads.
Cleared alerts- When an alert message has been delivered and cleared. Alerts remain as an archived record and can still
be tracked and monitored.

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SAP Compliance Configuration

The configuration Tab is the main starting point for post installation setup.
NOTE: Only an User with Administrative authority can access and use this aspect of Compliance calibrator.
The Java Connector (JCO) acts as the integration point between the Java application and the SAP system to be monitored / analyzed.
The User Management Engine provides for out-of the box J2EE Administrator profiles to be defined or activated .
The Rule set upload function is used to load the standard rules or customized rule set e.g. critical transaction codes, critical objects etcetera. These
characteristics are the foundations of the SoD rules.
The Workflow component is used to trigger email alerts to named Process Owners within the User Provisioning. It is an integrated part of the Access
Enforcer solution.
Background Job Scheduling is used for activating Monitoring e.g.. frequency of SoD analysis, Risk Violations.

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SAP Compliance Configuration

STANDARD GRC RULESET

SCHEDULING RISK ANALYSIS

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Major Activities Walkthrough

Activity

SAP Compliance Calibrator

Install and set up SAP CC

Technical installation Core ECC, RFC connections to Modules, Assembly Test.

Agree security design principles and

dependencies with SAP CC

Establish design concepts and principles for mapping roles to jobs and users e.g. 1
Composite role to each user

Confirm Project governance and high

level processes

Agree business owners, Business Approvers, Control Approvers, Role

Maintenance and UP processes. Define Security controls.

Master data and functional set up. Test

functionality

Agree master data definitions; Organization; Business Process; Risk Descriptions;

Monitors and Control Approvers.

Define risks and configure risk rule set

Agree SODs conflicts and critical transactions. Categorise risk (H/M/L). Update
risks rule set. Test risks.

Run Risk analysis

Run risk analysis in staging environment. Run Risk Analysis in production

environment. Export reports and update Risk Logs.

Remedial actions

Identify and remove false positives. Agree whether to accept or reject risks. Plan
authorization changes, update security design templates and raise change request
to security maintenance. Re-run risk analysis.

Mitigate Accepted Risks

Agree mitigating controls for each risk. Agree control owners and business
approvers (execution). Update mitigating controls in tool.

Update procedures and security controls.

Update procedures to introduce SAP CC as a preventative control and reflect

governance for business ownership.

Transition to live

Train and enable operations staff, business approvers, control owners. Deploy new
procedures. Stabilization support

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Fire- fighter
The Firefighter application allows a user to take responsibility for tasks outside their normal job function, in a
emergency situation.
Enables users to perform duties not included in the roles or profiles assigned to their user IDs.
Provides this extended capability to users while creating an auditing layer to monitor and record Firefighter usage,
providing the capability to review activities used during an emergency situation.
Role 1
Role 2

Firefighter ID 1

User 1

Role 3

Before users can access Firefighter, they must be assigned a Firefighter ID. For each Firefighter ID you define the
following roles.
Owner
Owners can assign Firefighter IDs to Firefighters
Controllers
Receives email notification and reviews the Firefighter Log report.
In addition the Administrator perform the creation of Firefighter ID and assign authorization roles.

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Process Overview
SAP Firefighter
Request
access to
production

Request access
to Production.

Approve
Request

Assign
Firefighter
account

Update
Production

Review
Control
Log

Firefighter enables users to perform duties not included in the roles or profiles assigned to their
userIDs. Firefighter provides this extended capability to users while creating an auditing layer to
monitor and record Firefighter usage.
Through automated emergency access administration, Firefighter tracks, monitors, and logs all
emergency access activities
Example
If the employee who normally works with vendor accounting, but is on vacation or sick leave, another
employee who usually verifies invoices may be assigned a Firefighter ID to perform this task
temporarily.
Benefits of Firefighter are:
Avoid business obstructions with faster emergency response
Reduce audit time
Reduce time to perform critical tasks
GRC Basic
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Fire- fighter
Firefighter dashboard

Firefighter Log Report

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Access - Enforcer
Access Enforcer is a web-based application within J2EE and NetWeaver environments. It is connected to
multiple data sources such as an LDAP and SAP backend system.
Access Enforcer automates the end-to-end access provisioning approval process by combining roles and
permissions with workflow.
When a user requests access to resources for which they do not have permission, Access Enforcer automatically
forwards the access request to designated managers and approvers within a pre-defined workflow. This
workflow is customized to reflect your company policy.
Roles and permissions are automatically applied to the enterprise directories when the access request are
approved.
Access Enforcer automates the role provisioning process within the identity management environment. It
ensures corporate accountability and compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley along with other laws and regulations.

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Access Enforcer
Access Enforcer has four task modules for specific usage. They include:
Requestors The Requestors module is for end-users who are requesting access to SAP and non-SAP backend
systems.
Approvers The Approvers module is for approvers who approve access requests. Approvers can also request
access for other end-users. Approvers include line managers and IT security.
Informer The Informer module is a reporting tool that provides graphical and analytical reports for managers.
Configuration The Configuration module is for Access Enforcer Administrators who define defaults, workflow,
and other attributes that are based on their corporate business processes and policies.

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Access Enforcer Module Breakdown

Approver

Requestor

Informer

Access Enforcer provides three standard Approver

types. Depending on your organizational hierarchy
and process, there may be other Approver types
that can be added to Access Enforcer. The standard
Approver types are:

As a Requestor, you use the

Requestor module to create
various access requests for an
SAP backend system, non-SAP
system, or other application
(server). There are three types of
Requestors:

Access Enforcer provides the

ability to generate various reports
for the purpose of viewing and
analyzing request approval
activities. Reports are divided into
two categories:

Manager Approver is usually the requestors

manager. Manager can review and approve their
workflow stage during the approval process.
Role Owner Approver has the authority to approve
or reject a request. The Approver can put a request
on hold and add additional roles to the request, if
necessary. An Approver can only approve or reject
requests that they own and cannot approve
requests for other approvers unless they are
assigned as a alternate approver.
Security Approver is usually the last approver in a
typical workflow. The Security Approver can
provision access to the target system that has been
requested.

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GRC Basic

Department Member Creates

requests for access permissions or
roles, for themselves or for their
team members
Managers Creates requests for
roles for their subordinates
Approvers Other managers can
also create requests

Analytical lets you drill down to

individual role change and access
permission requests.
Chart generates a graphical view
of the request approval
information, which can be used to
analyze various activities.

Access Enforcer Screenshots

Request for Approval List- displays pending requests

assigned to you.

Request Approver Page for a request submitted.

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1 Makes access Request for specific application,

for which they do not have the necessary roles
2. Provides Access Request page, which can be set to specific
or multiple data sources (e.g. SAP HR system or non-SAP systems)
to complete the request process
Requestor

SAP

Access Enforcer Walkthrough

Access
Enforcer

3. Submits completed Access request page. This triggers a Workflow process, which
is made up of several pre-defined approval stages and is customized to reflect
the business and security policies and procedures.

4. Receives email notification of access request at each approval stage.

Performs Risk analysis and SOD assessments.
When conflict arises, approver can mitigate the problem or reject the Request.
5. Upon approval, access request is routed to next stage, which could involve
the IT security team for entry to the SAP backend system or application server.
Automatic provisioning to the target system could take place.

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Approver

Access Enforcer - Benefits

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Role Expert
Role Expert is a solution for compliant enterprise role management, allowing role owners to define,
document, and manage roles across multiple enterprise applications ad enforces best practices, resulting in
lower ongoing maintenance and effortless knowledge transfer
Automatically analyzes roles for potential security risks (audit and SoD issues), tracks changes, and facilitates
approval workflow, eliminating the inefficient back-and-forth exchanges between business managers and IT.
Role Expert provides a complete audit trail, covering role definition, detailed change history, and control test
results and allows SAP security administrators and Role Owners to document important role information that
can be of great value for better role management such as:
Tracking progress during role implementation
Monitoring the overall quality of the implementation
Performing risk analysis at role design time
Setting up a workflow for role approval
Providing an audit trail for all role modifications
Maintaining roles after they are generated to keep role information current

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Role Expert
Role Library- Dashboard of all the roles in Role Expert. Displays an interactive graphical interface of the roles
broken down by system landscape, role owner, or business process. It also shows the number of roles with
violations and roles belonging to different role types.
Role designer- Provides you with a step-by-step guide for designing roles across your enterprise. Role Designer
allows you to define:
Role Building Methodology
Naming Conventions
Role Attributes
Org. Value Mapping
Approval Criteria
Org Level- Maps the hierarchical
structuring of organization,
enabling to manage roles
effectively.
Change history provides you with
an audit trail for all the changes
made to roles within Role Expert
or your SAP system
Mass Maintenance- Allows you to
synchronize the SAP Back-end
systems with Role Expert by
importing roles that already exist
in the SAP system.

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Please let me know if any concerns.

Thanks
Biju

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