We’ve recently made available a new repository at https://github.com/ibm-messaging/mq-exits that is intended to hold the source code for various MQ Exits of different kinds.
The “exit” word here covers a variety of different interfaces for MQ including:
- Channel exits
- API Exits
- Installable Services
While there are a number of repositories with application-level code, these more advanced topics needed somewhere to collect them too. To seed the repo, there are two packages. One old, one new.
The initial contents
The old one is an Installable Service oamlogthat logs all interactions with the Object Authority Manager. Originally released in 2001 as SupportPac MS07, then moved into MS0P, it might have found a final resting place here.
The new connwarn exit is perhaps more interesting. Rob has written an channel security exit that can be used to check the behaviour of client applications as part of a migration process towards enabling CONNAUTH userid/password authentication. It logs information about connection requests including the different ways in which passwords might be passed from the application.
It doesn’t actually stop applications with bad credentials from connecting. That’s because the intention is that you work out which apps are bad before then turning on real authentication with CONNAUTH. And once you’ve migrated, then the exit can be removed.
The log output from connwarn exit
- timestamp: "2020-11-17T15:22:47+0000" remote_conname: "127.0.0.1" remote_appuser: "metaylor" MQCD_set: false MQCD_user: "" MQCSP_set: false MQCSP_user: "" MQCD_MQCSP_identical: false MQCSP_valid: false
Future thoughts
Now that the repository exists, I’ve got some thoughts on potential additions. There’s a couple of API Exits that might be suitable. We might take copies of some of the sample exits that are in the product, or which have been floating around the internet for years.
But the key point is there is now an easily-searchable home for this kind of code. And I’d be interested in hearing about any suggestions you might have too.
This post was last updated on November 17th, 2020 at 07:47 pm