Mainframe access control facilities IBM® RACF®, CA ACF2™ and CA Top Secret® each have their own peculiarities in password generation policy. Some of these policy rules date back to the 1970s, some of them are fairly new. Undoubtedly, passwords are difficult to manage on the mainframe because of they are legacy systems and have their individual peculiarities. Adding to the mix, are security policies that dictate a regular cadence for password changes and these changes can come at inopportune times, like 3:00 a.m. when something is amiss in your datacenter. KhyberPass™ from Santa Rosa Software accounts for policy requirements for RACF, ACF2, and Top Secret in an easy-to-install and use mobile app.

Available from the Google Play Store, KhyberPass™, from Santa Rosa Software, is a mainframe rules-cognizant password generator. Gone are the days when developers, administrators, database managers, and anyone else needing access to the mainframe become frustrated with a password change at the inopportune time. KhyberPass is an easily configurable password generator and manager for RACF, ACF2 and Top Secret. Installation is fast and as easy as adding any other app from the Google Play Store. The KhyberPass mobile app is clean and intuitive as just about any other mobile device application on the Play Store, and there is a built-in user guide.

KhyberPass was built with security and convenience in mind. The security advantage is that no matter how many password rules a security administrator constructs, some users will still create extremely poor passwords. Even with the complex and onerous rules referenced previously, a user could still set P@SSWORD, LETMEIN$ or ABCD3FGH as his/her passwords. Because the KhyberPass generator will use a crypto-quality random number generator to create its passwords, passwords such as the above are vanishingly unlikely. It will always generate unpredictable, hard-to-guess passwords like NZT3QTWC.