Goal of an authorization concept
Check for permissions on the old user group when assigning a new user group to a user
Single sign-on (SSO): This solution is useful if you have not yet used SSO for your SAPS systems or if not all SAP systems are integrated into the SSO solution. In such cases, you must implement the Web application in a system that supports SSO logins, such as Central User Management (ZBV), SAP Identity Management (ID Management), or Active Directory (AD).
Applications use the ABAP statement AUTHORITY-CHECK in the source code of the program to check whether the user has the appropriate authorizations and whether these authorizations are defined appropriately, that is, whether the user administrator has assigned the values required by the programmer for the fields. In this way, you can also protect transactions that are indirectly accessed by other programs. AUTHORITY-CHECK searches the profiles specified in the user master record for authorizations for the authorization object specified in the AUTHORITY-CHECK statement. If one of the determined authorizations matches one of the specified values, the check was successful.
Challenges in authorization management
Permissions must have both identical maintenance status (default, maintained, modified, manual) and an identical active status (active or inactive). Exceptions represent changed permissions and manual permissions; these are summarised when the active status is identical.
It is best if the persons responsible for the system develop role descriptions with their departments in advance and document them outside SAP SuccessFactors (e.g., as in Fig. 2). In case of queries, they can use this basis to explain exactly why someone has been given a certain authorization. The role descriptions and the report help to work in a DSGVO-compliant manner. Since the report updates automatically, companies have no additional effort to document the changes - one less unloved (and often "forgotten") task.
The possibility of assigning authorizations during the go-live can be additionally secured by using "Shortcut for SAP systems".
With the Support Package 12 for NetWeaver Release 7.31 and Support Package 4 for NetWeaver Release 7.40 from SAP Note 1896191, the Expert Mode function for taking SU22 data for step 2 has been added.
The website www.sap-corner.de offers a lot of useful information about SAP authorizations.
By signing the data ownership concept, the responsibility should be acknowledged and taken as seriously and bindingly as, for example, the signature under the purchase contract of a house.