Question & Answer
Question
I am having a problem with our CICS Transaction Server for z/OS (CICS TS) initial dialog if there is an equal sign '=' included within the password. I am using the keyword form of signon as follows:
CESN USERID=uuuuuuuu,PS=ppppppp
When the password field contains an embedded equal sign '=', the CESN transaction fails with the following message:
DFHCE3500 Unable to interpret keyword data. Sign-on is terminated.
RACF documentation indicates the '=' is allowed within passwords. Other applications allow the password to contain an embedded '=' as well. Why does CICS return message DFHCE3500 when an equal sign is in the password?
Answer
The CESN transaction makes use of the equal sign (=) as a delimiter to indicate a field value follows. As a solution, make use of the CESL transaction and enclose the password with single quotes. For example:
CESL USERID=userid,PS='ABCD=FGH'
This will allow the '=' to be passed on to the external security manager (ESM) and processed correctly. Note, if using a script or program to issue the keyword form of sign-on with CESL, there is no harm to always enclose the password in quotes which makes the script or program change very easy.
Product Synonym
CICS/TS CICSTS CICS TS CICS Transaction Server
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Document Information
Modified date:
06 August 2018
UID
dwa1462414