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IBM: z/VSE - Service and support - Preventive

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IBM: z/VSE - Service and support - Preventive

Note: z/VSE 6.2 is not supported anymore. The End-Of-Service effective date is September 30, 2023, see z/VSE 6.2 End-Of-Service Information for details.

z/VSE Service Refresh

IBM periodically upgrades the z/VSE system libraries with the latest level of maintenance. This is known as a service refresh and contains all PTFs available at build time. A refresh is installed by performing a Fast Service Upgrade (FSU).

This refreshed system has been thoroughly tested. In general, a service refresh contains only corrections to the existing z/VSE system. In rare cases, it also might provide additional functions. These functions are implemented in a way that they do not influence your system when you do not use or need them.

As required, IBM provides refreshes at identical service levels for the z/VSE base programs, extended base products, and z/VSE optional programs.

You might want to install a refresh to avoid possible problems. Thus a service refresh might be an option for you, even if your system and its environment are stable. In addition, a refresh might be best when you want to make major changes to your system (add hardware devices or IBM licensed programs, for example). The maintenance requirements for these changes might make installing a service refresh the most efficient way to meet them

Note: Refreshes can be ordered only while the corresponding product release is available. After End of Marketing, refreshes can no longer be ordered, although the product is still in service.

PSP buckets

Preventive Service Planning (PSP) buckets for z/VSE contain all HIPER PTFs (and other important service) for a specific set of products or components on a specific z/VSE refresh level. A PSP bucket has a name (upgrade ID) and contains product information ordered into different 'subsets'. Each subset relates to a product or set of products and contains different sections. HIPER APARs and a short error description can be found in section Service Recommendations together with the corresponding PTF number. In addition all corresponding PTFs are listed in the PTF Include List for easy ordering.

 

IBM Shopz can be used to order so called PSP critical service. This order includes all HIPER PTFs of all products and components currently installed on your system. You must provide an Installed Software Report when ordering the service. Such a report can be created with the Installed Software Report Tool.

Recommended Service Level

A preventive service offering is available for z/VSE, the Recommended Service Level (RSL).

This service offering fills the gap between z/VSE Refresh levels and the "High Impact or Pervasive APAR" (HIPER) service provided with "Preventive Service Planning" (PSP) buckets. An RSL consists of a list of ALL APAR/PTF numbers, which are available at specific cutoff dates. RSLs are updated more frequently than refreshes and contain ALL available service, not only the HIPER service.

RSLs are published like special RSL PSP buckets and on the z/VSE service page. RSL PSPs are ordered on tape like HIPER PSPs and can be ordered electronically.

This service offering helps customers keep their z/VSE system on a current and reliable service level. An RSL should be installed after installing the latest refresh, followed by the most current HIPER PSP bucket.

RSLs are available for z/VSE releases currently in service. For z/VSE releases, which are going out of service, an ‘End-of-Service’ RSL is provided

The following table contains lists of all available service for the individual z/VSE refresh levels at the specified date. The Base Products and Optional Products lists show the APAR numbers, corresponding PTF numbers, and the applicable component-IDs and CLCs. Separate 'PTF Order Lists' are provided which contain only the PTF numbers for easy ordering of the Recommended Service. Known PTF-in-Error (PE) solutions and prerequisite PTFs are included.

To order PTFs with IBM Shopz, open the order list and copy the PTF numbers over to the PTF number entry field. You may copy the PTF numbers of multiple products in one step, including the product names. Only input recognized as a PTF number is processed.

Latest update October 12, 2023

  • z/VSE 6.2.0, upgraded to the October 6, 2023 level
  • New PTFs are indicated by an asterisk in the Base Products and Optional Products files.
Service recommended for PTF Order List Cutoff Date
Out of Service releases
z/VSE 6.2.0 Base Products PTFs 620B October 6, 2023
Optional Prod. PTFs 620O
z/VSE 6.1.0 Base Products PTFs 610B July 2, 2019
Optional Prod. PTFs 610O
z/VSE 5.2.0 Base Products PTFs 520B October 31, 2018
Optional Prod. PTFs 520O
z/VSE 5.1.2 Base Products PTFs 512B Jun 30, 2016
Optional Prod. PTFs 512O
z/VSE 5.1.1 Base Products PTFs 511B April 9, 2013
Optional Prod. PTFs 511O
z/VSE 5.1.0 Base Products PTFs 510B Apr 26, 2012
Optional Prod. PTFs 510O

How to create an "Installed Software Report"

This section describes how to create an "Installed Software Report" to be used with IBM Shopz. An Installed Software Report (also called z/VSE service bitmap) contains information about the products and components installed and PTFs that are applied on a z/VSE system. The report is build from information stored in the MSHP history file. To build the report, the MSHP RETRACE PRODUCTS and RETRACE PTFS functions are run. Afterwards the required information is extracted from the MSHP output and the report is created.

There is a tool available to build such a report for z/VSE. The tool connects to z/VSE by using FTP, runs 2 MSHP jobs and creates and stores the report on the workstation.

Security and system integrity

IBM strongly recommends that users of the z/VSE Operating System validate the currency of security and system integrity service and take action to promptly install all security and integrity PTFs.

In addition to available PTFs, IBM includes any pertinent Security and Integrity APAR fixes in the next Preventative Service Planning (PSP) bucket or Recommended Service Level (RSL) after the fix is available. The PSP bucket for z/VSE contains all HIPER PTFs along with other recommended service for a specific set of products or components on a specific z/VSE refresh level. The RSL offering provides a list of all APAR/PTF numbers available at specific cutoff dates and fills the gap between regular z/VSE Refresh levels and the more urgent service provided by the PSP bucket.

It is strongly recommended that clients validate the currency of their z/VSE security and system integrity service levels and routinely check the following list of APARs and PTFs to receive the latest information on IBM Z security and system integrity service. The timely installation of service, including security and system integrity service, can help minimize potential risks and maintain overall system security and availability.

Security and system integrity-related news:

Date Description
Dec 15, 2021 No CVE-2021-44228 vulnerability in z/VSE
z/VSE code does not include log4j. If customer applications require log4j, the customer is responsible to update log4j. Some as-is z/VSE Java tools may ask for installation of log4j. Please load the new version of log4j if you have installed it for example for CICS2WS Toolkit or Multi Instant Logic Analyzer4VSAM.
Feb 6, 2018 Vulnerabilities Meltdown and Spectre
Three security vulnerabilities that allow unauthorized users to bypass the hardware barrier between applications and kernel memory have been made public. These vulnerabilities all make use of speculative execution to perform side-channel information disclosure attacks. The first two vulnerabilities, CVE-2017-5753 and CVE-2017- 5715, are collectively known as Spectre, and allow user-level code to infer data from unauthorized memory; the third vulnerability, CVE-2017-5754, is known as Meltdown, and allows user-level code to infer the contents of kernel memory. The vulnerabilities are all variants of the same class of attacks and differ in the way that speculative execution is exploited. z/VSE operating system environments are unaffected.
Oct 4, 2016 The SWEET32 vulnerability on Triple-DES (CVE-2016-2183) affects OpenSSL on z/VSE (PDF, 190KB)
Feb 8, 2016 Vulnerability in MD5 Signature and Hash Algorithm (CVE-2015-7575) on z/VSE (PDF, 25KB)
Dec 18, 2014 Impact of POODLE (CVE-2014-3566) on z/VSE (PDF, 105KB)

Security and system integrity-related APARs and PTFs:

Last update: May 3, 2023

APAR
Date
PTF Contents
DY47862
2023/04/11
UD90370-62S OpenSSL upgrade to 1.1.1t and security fixes for CVE-2023-0464 and CVE-2023-0465
DY47857
2022/04/08
UD54405-62C Upgrade to zlib 1.2.12 for CVE-2018-25032
DY47856
2022/03/17
UD54404-62S Security fixes for OpenSSL on z/VSE: CVE-2022-0778
DY47851
2021/09/01
UD54399-62S Security fixes for OpenSSL on z/VSE: CVE-2021-3712
DY47846
2021/06/08
UD54394-62S Updates for OpenSSL on z/VSE with TLSV1.3
DY30239
2021/02/18
UD54385-62S
  1. Enable TLS 1.3 support for OpenSSL on z/VSE.
  2. Security fixes for OpenSSL on z/VSE: CVE-2020-1967, CVE-2020-1971, CVE-2021-23840, CVE-2021-23841
DY47825
2020/03/18
UD54364-62S z/VSE V6.2: OpenSSL upgrade to 1.1.1d
DY47721
2017/07/26
UD54251-61S z/VSE V5.2: zlib upgrade to V1.2.11 (CVE-2016-9840, CVE-2016-9841, CVE-2016-9842)
DY47720
2017/07/26
UD54250-52S z/VSE V5.2: zlib upgrade to V1.2.11 (CVE-2016-9840, CVE-2016-9841, CVE-2016-9842)
DY47706
2017/03/17
UD54224-61S z/VSE V6.1: Security fixes for OpenSSL (CVE-2016-2182, CVE-2016-6306)
DY47705
2017/03/17
UD54223-52S z/VSE V5.2: Security fixes for OpenSSL (CVE-2016-2182, CVE-2016-6306)
DY47689
2016/09/26
UD54211-61S z/VSE V6.1: OpenSSL Upgrade to 1.0.2h plus CVE-2016-2177
DY47688
2016/09/26
UD54209-52S z/VSE V5.2: OpenSSL Upgrade to 1.0.2h plus CVE-2016-2177
DY47613
2015/07/15
UD54123-52S z/VSE V5.2: Security fixes for OpenSSL (CVE-2015-1793)
DY47613
2015/07/15
UD54122-51S z/VSE V5.1: Security fixes for OpenSSL (CVE-2015-1793)
DY47610
2015/05/29
UD54118-52S z/VSE V5.2: Security fixes for OpenSSL: The minimum Diffie-Hellman (DH) parameter length is changed to 1024 bits
DY47610
2015/05/29
UD54117-51S z/VSE V5.1: Security fixes for OpenSSL: The minimum Diffie-Hellman (DH) parameter length is changed to 1024 bits
DY47602
2015/04/09
UD54106-52S z/VSE V5.2: Security fixes for OpenSSL (CVE-2015-0286)
DY47602
2015/04/09
UD54105-51S z/VSE V5.1: Security fixes for OpenSSL (CVE-2015-0286)
DY47591
2015/02/16
UD54091-52S z/VSE V5.2: Security fixes for OpenSSL (CVE-2014-3572, CVE-2014-8275, CVE-2015-0204)
DY47591
2015/02/16
UD54090-51S z/VSE V5.1: Security fixes for OpenSSL (CVE-2014-3572, CVE-2014-8275, CVE-2015-0204)
DY47581
2014/10/22
UD54072-52S z/VSE V5.2: Security fixes for OpenSSL (CVE-2014-3567)
DY47581
2014/10/22
UD54071-51S z/VSE V5.1: Security fixes for OpenSSL (CVE-2014-3567)
DY47561
2014/08/29
UD54054-52S z/VSE V5.2: Security fixes for OpenSSL (CVE-2014-3509, CVE-2014-3511)
DY47561
2014/08/29
UD54053-51S z/VSE V5.1: Security fixes for OpenSSL (CVE-2014-3509, CVE-2014-3511)
DY47545
2014/06/12
UD54037-52S z/VSE V5.2: Security fixes for OpenSSL (CVE-2014-0224)
DY47545
2014/06/12
UD54036-51S z/VSE V5.1: Security fixes for OpenSSL (CVE-2014-0224)
DY47534
2014/04/25
UD54027-52S z/VSE V5.2: Security fixes for OpenSSL (CVE-2014-0160)
DY47532
2014/04/15
UD54020-51S z/VSE V5.1: Security fixes for OpenSSL (CVE-2014-0160)
DY47516
2014/02/18
UD54005-51S z/VSE V5.1: Security fixes for OpenSSL (CVE-2013-4353, CVE-2013-6449, CVE-2013-6450)
DY47499
2013/10/17
UD53983-51S z/VSE V5.1: OpenSSL 1.0.1e refresh
PM98875
2013/10/11
UK98397-B10 IPv6/VSE update for TLSv1.2 support
DY47472
2013/06/25
UD53952-51S z/VSE V5.1: OpenSSL: Remove RC4 cipher suites due to security issues.
PM77065
2012/11/19
UK83637-B10 Initial IPv6/VSE version with OpenSSL support
DY47397
2012/09/11
UD53864-51S z/VSE V5.1: OpenSSL 1.0.0d update for z/VSE 5.1

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Document Information

Modified date:
03 April 2024

UID

isg3T1027465