Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC) – Field Masking scenario in Product application of CRM WebClient UI

Introduction

In this blog post, we will learn how to mask “Product ID”, “Product Name“, “Price“, and “Currency“ fields of Product application for products of Product Category “Notebooks” in CRM WebClient UI.

Attribute based authorizations are dynamic determination mechanism which determines whether a user is authorized to access specific data sets which can be based on the context attributes of the user and data (for example, price of certain sensitive materials are masked).

The end result will appear as:

Prerequisite

Product “UI data protection masking for SAP S/4HANA” is used in this scenario to protect sensitive data at field level and must be installed in the S/4HANA system.

The product is a cross-application product which can be used to mask/protect any field in SAP GUI, SAPUI5/SAP Fiori, CRM Web Client UI, and Web Dynpro ABAP.

Let’s begin

Configuration to achieve masking

Logical Attribute is a functional modelling of how any attribute such as Social Security Number, Bank Account Number, Amounts, Pricing information, Quantity etc. should behave with masking.

Configure Logical Attribute

Follow the given path:

SPRO -> SAP NetWeaver -> UI Data Protection Masking for SAP S/4HANA -> Maintain Metadata Configuration -> Maintain Logical Attributes

Maintain Technical Address

In this step, we will associate the Technical Address of the fields to be masked with the Logical Attributes.

You can get the Technical Address of a CRM WebClient UI field by pressing “F2” on the field.

Follow the given path:

SPRO -> SAP NetWeaver -> UI Data Protection Masking for SAP S/4HANA -> Maintain Metadata Configuration -> Maintain Technical Address

Follow below mentioned steps:

Under “Web Client UI Field Mapping”, maintain technical address for following fields.

• Click on “New Entries” button
• Enter “Component Name” as “EPM_DEMO_PROD”
• Enter “View” as “SEARCHRESULTVIEW”
• Enter “Context Node” as “SEARCHRESULTNODE“
• Enter “Attribute of Context Node” as “CATEGORY”
• Enter “Logical Attribute” as “LA_PRODCATEGORY”
• Enter “Description of Web Client UI Mapping” as “Product Category”
• Click on “Save” button

• Click on “New Entries” button
• Enter “Component Name” as “EPM_DEMO_PROD”
• Enter “View” as “SEARCHRESULTVIEW”
• Enter “Context Node” as “SEARCHRESULTNODE“
• Enter “Attribute of Context Node” as “PRODUCT_ID”
• Enter “Logical Attribute” as “LA_PRODID”
• Enter “Description of Web Client UI Mapping” as “Product ID”
• Click on “Save” button

• Click on “New Entries” button
• Enter “Component Name” as “EPM_DEMO_PROD”
• Enter “View” as “SEARCHRESULTVIEW”
• Enter “Context Node” as “SEARCHRESULTNODE“
• Enter “Attribute of Context Node” as “PRODUCT_NAME”
• Enter “Logical Attribute” as “LA_PRODNAME”
• Enter “Description of Web Client UI Mapping” as “Product Name”
• Click on “Save” button

• Click on “New Entries” button
• Enter “Component Name” as “EPM_DEMO_PROD”
• Enter “View” as “SEARCHRESULTVIEW”
• Enter “Context Node” as “SEARCHRESULTNODE“
• Enter “Attribute of Context Node” as “PRICE“
• Enter “Logical Attribute” as “LA_PRODPRICE”
• Enter “Description of Web Client UI Mapping” as “Product Price”
• Click on “Save” button

• Click on “New Entries” button
• Enter “Component Name” as “EPM_DEMO_PROD”
• Enter “View” as “SEARCHRESULTVIEW”
• Enter “Context Node” as “SEARCHRESULTNODE“
• Enter “Attribute of Context Node” as “CURRENCY_CODE“
• Enter “Logical Attribute” as “LA_CURCODE”
• Enter “Description of Web Client UI Mapping” as “Currency Code”
• Click on “Save” button

Policy Configuration

A Policy is a combination of rules and actions which are defined in one or more blocks. The actions are executed on a sensitive entity (field to be protected) which has to be assigned to a Policy. The conditions are based on contextual attributes which help derive the context.

Context Attributes are logical attributes which are used in designing the rules of a policy. They are mapped to fields which are used to derive the context under which an action is to be executed on a sensitive entity.

Sensitive Entities are logical attributes which are sensitive and need to be protected from unauthorized access.

Follow the given path:

SPRO -> SAP NetWeaver -> UI Data Protection Masking for SAP S/4HANA -> Data Protection Configuration -> Maintain Policy Details for Attribute based Authorizations – Follow below mentioned steps:

• Click on “New Entries” button
• Enter “Policy Name” as “POL_CRM_MASK”
• Select “Type” as “Field Level Masking”
• Select “Application Module” as “M Materials Management”
• Enter “Description” as “Mask records in CRM”
• Click on “Save” button

Write following logic into Policy

Maintain Field Level Security and Masking Configuration

Here, we will define how masking will behave with the logical attribute that we created in above step.

Follow the given path:

SPRO -> SAP NetWeaver -> UI Data Protection Masking for SAP S/4HANA -> Data Protection Configuration -> Maintain Field Level Security and Masking Configuration

Follow below mentioned steps:

• Click on “New Entries” button
• Enter “Sensitive Entity” as “LA_PRODID” and press “Enter” key. “Description” and “Application Module” will get populated in corresponding fields
• Check “Enable Configuration” check-box
• Select “Attribute Based Authorization” option
• Enter “Policy Name” as “POL_CRM_MASK”
• Click on “Save” button

• Click on “New Entries” button
• Enter “Sensitive Entity” as “LA_PRODNAME” and press “Enter” key. “Description” and “Application Module” will get populated in corresponding fields
• Check “Enable Configuration” check-box
• Select “Attribute Based Authorization” option
• Enter “Policy Name” as “POL_CRM_MASK”
• Click on “Save” button

• Click on “New Entries” button
• Enter “Sensitive Entity” as “LA_PRODPRICE” and press “Enter” key. “Description” and “Application Module” will get populated in corresponding fields
• Check “Enable Configuration” check-box
• Select “Attribute Based Authorization” option
• Enter “Policy Name” as “POL_CRM_MASK”
• Click on “Save” button

• Click on “New Entries” button
• Enter “Sensitive Entity” as “LA_CURCODE” and press “Enter” key. “Description” and “Application Module” will get populated in corresponding fields
• Check “Enable Configuration” check-box
• Select “Attribute Based Authorization” option
• Enter “Policy Name” as “POL_CRM_MASK”
• Click on “Save” button

Conclusion

In this blog post, we have learnt how Attribute-based masking is achieved in Product application of CRM WebClient UI for masking “Product ID”, “Product Name“, “Price“, and “Currency“ fields for products of Product Category “Notebooks”.