APX permissions

APXs requires that you have the SA Client Feature permission Manage Extensions. A user group can be given one of the permissions:

  • Manage Extensions: Read
  • Manage Extensions: Read & Write
  • Manage Extensions: None

APX feature permissions

These feature permissions apply only to APX developers and administrators, they do not apply to those users who only need to run APXs.

  • Read permission grants the ability to display the APX source contents or to export (download) the APX source archives.
  • Read & Write permission grants the ability to modify the contents of an APX in addition to read access.
  • None permission denies all access to the APX source.

In addition to the SA Client Feature Manage Extensions permission, folder permissions (list, read, write, execute) must be used to determine which APXs a user has access to.

APX permissions

Permission

Description

List

Permission to list the system’s APXs.

Read

Permission to view APX contents.

Write

Permission to modify APX content and to import and export APXs.

Execute

Permission to run APXs and view APX properties.

The following table shows a matrix of how permissions are determined based on the combination of the Manage Extensions feature permissions and folder permissions.

APX permission matrix

Folder Permission:

Manage Extensions Permission:

Read

Read & Write

None

List

List APXs

List APXs

List APXs

Read

Export APXs

Export APXs

List APXs

Write

Export APXs

Import, export APXs

List APXs

Execute

Run APXs

Run APXs

Run APXs

Like other SA features, you can grant a user access to an APX and specify to which managed servers and/or policies the user can apply the APX.

If a user attempts to access a Web APX for which he does not have execution permission, the Web browser will receive an HTTP 403 Forbidden return code.

For more information on SA permissions, see the Server Automation Administer section on the HPE SSO portal.

Permission escalation

When executing an APX, the user has only the privileges to access resources and operations granted in SA. However, in some cases, it will be necessary to temporarily grant the user escalated permissions, privileges beyond the SA privileges, while executing an APX. You can explicitly grant certain privileges to users, over-and-above their default SA privileges, on a temporary basis while running an APX. Permission escalation is transparent to the user running the APX.

For example, you may want a user to be able to run a BIOS information gathering application on a managed server, but the user does not have the permissions granted to do so. You can write an APX for a user without the privileges required to run the BIOS gathering application that temporarily grants that user the required privileges. The user’s privileges return to the default after the APX ends its run.

Privilege escalation is specified in the file apx.perm file. For more information, see APX permissions escalation configuration file - apx.perm.