Configuring administrator accounts and access profiles
The Administrator submenu configures administrator accounts and access profiles.
About administrator account permissions and domains
Depending on the account that you use to log in to the FortiMail unit, you may not have complete access to all CLI commands or areas of the GUI.
Admin profile and Access level together control which commands and areas an administrator account can access. Permissions result from an interaction of both.
The Access level is the scope to which an administrator is assigned, either:
-
System
The administrator can access areas regardless of whether it is the FortiMail unit itself (system-wide) or a protected domain. Every administrator’s permissions are restricted only by their Admin profile.
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Domain
The administrator can only access areas that are specifically assigned to that protected domain. With a few exceptions, the administrator cannot access system-wide settings, files, statistics, nor most settings that can affect other protected domains, regardless of whether access to those items would otherwise be allowed by the administrator’s access profile. The administrator cannot access the CLI, nor the basic mode of the GUI For more information on the display modes of the GUI, see Basic mode versus advanced mode.
-
Domain group
With an advanced management license, domain groups can be created and used to allocate domain-level administrators to potentially manage multiple domains, and all log entries associated with their domains. Domain-level administrators can search history logs, with the results filtered based on the user's domain.
There are exceptions. Domain administrators can configure IP-based policies, the global block list, the global safe list, the blocklist action, and the global Bayesian database. If you do not want to allow this, do not provide Read-Write permission to those categories in the Admin profile for domain administrators.
Areas of the GUI that domain administrators cannot access
Monitor except:
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System except for:
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Domain & User except:
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Policy except:
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Profile except:
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Security except:
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Encryption |
Data Loss Prevention |
Email Archiving |
Log & Report |
The Admin profile defines the permissions that administrator accounts have to each area of the FortiMail software. Exact effects vary by the combination with the Access level of the administrator account.
Permission |
Access level: System |
Access level: Domain |
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(also known as all) |
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Custom |
Permissions vary by which is selected (Read etc.) in each area.
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About the “admin” account
Unlike other administrator accounts whose Admin profile is super_admin_prof
and Access level is System, the admin
administrator account exists by default and cannot be deleted. The admin
administrator account is similar to a root administrator account. Its name, permissions, and assignment to the System
domain cannot be changed.
The admin
administrator account always has full permission to view and change all FortiMail configuration options, including viewing and changing all other administrator accounts. It is the only administrator account that can reset another administrator’s password without having to enter the existing password. As such, it is the only account that can reset another administrator’s password if the existing password is unknown or forgotten (Other administrators can change an administrator’s password if they know the current password).
About the “remote_wildcard” account
You can use the wildcard administrator account so that many accounts from a RADIUS or LDAP server can log onto FortiMail.
To achieve this, you can use the preconfigured account named remote_wildcard
account.
- Go to System > Administrator > Administrator.
- Double click the built-in account named
remote_wildcard
. -
Configure the settings (see Configuring administrator accounts) and click OK.
In Authentication type, select RADIUS or LDAP. The name,
remote_wildcard
, is not editable.
Configuring administrator accounts
The Administrator tab displays a list of the FortiMail unit’s administrator accounts and the trusted host IP addresses that administrators are allowed to use to log in (if configured).
By default, FortiMail units have one administrator account, admin
. For more granular control over administrative access, you can create more administrator accounts that are restricted to a specific protected domain and permissions. For details, see About administrator account permissions and domains.
Depending on the type of your FortiMail administrator account, this list may not display all administrator accounts.
- For the
admin
superuser, all administrators will be displayed. - For administrators with the access profile named
super_admin_prof
, all administrators except foradmin
will be displayed. - For all other administrators, only the administrators who are not using the
super_admin_prof
access profile will be displayed.
If you configured a system quarantine administrator account, this account does not appear in the list of standard FortiMail administrator accounts. For details, see Configuring the system quarantine setting. |
To configure administrator accounts
-
Go to System > Administrator > Administrator.
-
Either click New to add an account or double-click an account to modify it.
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Configure the following and then click Create:
GUI item
Description
Enable
Enable or disable the account. If disabled, the account cannot access FortiMail.
Administrator
Enter the name for this administrator account.
The name can contain numbers (0-9), uppercase and lowercase letters (A-Z, a-z), hyphens ( - ), and underscores ( _ ). Other special characters and spaces are not allowed.
Select the scope of the administrator account:
- System
- Domain
- Domain Group
For details, see About administrator account permissions and domains and Configuring protected domains.
If Access level is Domain, the administrator cannot use the CLI nor the basic mode of the GUI.
Select the name of a protected domain.
This setting is available only if Access level is Domain.
Select the name of a group of protected domains.
This setting is available only if Access level is Domain group.
Select the name of an administrator profile that determines which functional areas the administrator account may view or affect.
Click New to create a new profile or Edit to modify the selected profile. For details, see Configuring administrator profiles.
Select the allowed access methods: CLI, GUI, and/or REST API.
For information on restricting administrative access protocols that can be used by administrator computers, see Editing network interfaces.
Select the local or remote type of authentication that the administrator will use:
- Local
- RADIUS
- PKI
- LDAP
- Single Sign On
Except for Local, most types require that you configure an authentication profile with associated settings. See Configuring authentication profiles and Configuring PKI authentication.
The GUI login page may not include all types, depending on what you select when customizing the appearance. See the FortiMail CLI Reference.
Enter a secure password for this administrator account.
The password can contain any character except spaces.
If you are changing your own password, the new password cannot be the same as the old one. After you change the password, you must log in again. However, if you are changing other administrators’ passwords, these rules do not apply.
This setting is only available when Authentication type is Local.
Confirm password
Enter this account’s password again to confirm it.
This setting is only available when Authentication type is Local.
If you selected the RADIUSor RADIUS + Local authentication type, select the name of the RADIUS profile that you want to use.
If you selected the PKI authentication type, select the name of the PKI profile that you want to use.
If you selected the LDAP authentication type, select the name of the LDAP profile that you want to use.
If you selected the Single Sign On authentication type, select the name of the SSO profile that you want to use.
Enter an IPv4 or IPv6 address or subnet from which this administrator can log in. You can add up to 10 trusted hosts.
If you want the administrator to access the FortiMail unit from any IP address, use
0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0
.Enter the IP address and netmask in dotted decimal format. For example, you might permit the administrator to log in to the FortiMail unit from your private network by typing
192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0
.For additional security, restrict all trusted host entries to administrator computers on your trusted private network. For information on restricting administrative access protocols that can be used by administrator computers, see Editing network interfaces.
Select this administrator account’s preference for the display language of the GUI.
This setting overrides the default language configured under System > Customization > Appearance. See Customizing the GUI appearance.
Select this administrator account’s preference for the display theme.
This setting overrides the default theme configured under System > Customization > Appearance. See Customizing the GUI appearance.
Configuring administrator profiles
The Admin Profile tab displays a list of access profiles.
Administrator profiles, in conjunction with the Access level to which an administrator account is assigned, govern which areas of the GUI and CLI that an administrator can access, and whether or not they have the permissions to change the configuration or modify items in each area.
To configure an administrator account profile
-
Go to System > Administrator > Admin Profile.
GUI item
Description
Name
Displays the name of the administrator access profile.
Comment
Displays an optional description of the administrator access profile.
Ref.
Indicates whether or not the profile is being used in one or more administrator accounts. Click to show the list of referenced entities.
The access profile named
super_admin_prof
is required by the administrator account namedadmin
, and cannot be deleted. -
Either click New to add an account or double-click an access profile to modify it.
-
In Profile name, enter the name for this access profile.
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For each row in the Access Control column, select the permissions such as Read/Write to grant to administrator accounts associated with this access profile. For more granular control of permissions, select Custom. For details, see About administrator account permissions and domains.
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Optionally, select the Privilege level:
- Low: No access to
diagnose
andconfig system xxx
commands in the CLI. - Medium: Normal access except for super admin privileges. This is the default setting.
- High: Same as medium.
- Low: No access to