Overview

Your automation practice might involve a lot of people, technologies, and data. To ensure the right people have access to the right parts of an automation, it's important for you to establish security in Appian RPA with careful consideration and thoughtfulness.

This page describes how to secure a robotic task, as well as the data that flows into and from Appian RPA. It also covers how to set up security between robotic tasks and other application objects.

It is very important to keep in mind that any security changes, on any component, can make a user lose access to a robotic task they've created, or prevent that user from executing or editing a robotic task. For this reason, it is important that you carefully consider any changes you make.

Appian recommends that you document your security settings to more easily reproduce in the future. For example, you may need to recreate security settings in a target environment when you deploy a robotic task.

Robotic task security

Securing the robotic task

Robotic tasks use role maps to determine which users have access and robot pools to determine which robots can execute the robotic task.

The security role map of a robotic task controls which developers can see or modify it and its properties. Unlike some other objects, Robotic Tasks never inherit security.

The following table outlines the actions that can be completed for each permission level in a robotic task's security role map:

Robotic Task Actions	Admin	Editor	Viewer	Deny
View definition	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Export	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Duplicate	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Edit definition	Yes	Yes	No	No
Import new version	Yes	Yes	No	No
View security	Yes	Yes	No	No
Edit security	Yes	No	No	No
Delete	Yes	No	No	No

Execution Actions	Admin	Editor	Viewer	Deny
Execute robotic task	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Debug a robotic task	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
View list of executions	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
View execution details	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Download execution artifacts	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Query execution info	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
View robotic task schedule	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Create or edit new robotic task	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Pause execution	Yes	No	No	No
Stop/Abort execution	Yes	No	No	No
Delete execution	Yes	No	No	No

Securing data in a robotic task

Robotic tasks access machines, software, and data in ways similar to your human workforce. It's crucial to embed data privacy and security during the design, execution, and review stages for every robotic task. When designing a secure robotic task, consider how Appian stores or shares data and how the robotic task stores execution metadata. RPA's advantage is the ability to interact with multiple systems, so it's also important to know that some security aspects fall outside of Appian's control.

This section describes data security aspects you should consider in the design, execution, and review of robotic tasks.

Design

Developers can include logging in the robotic task code to record information in the execution log, which is helpful for debugging processes or making results more readable. Be mindful of including potentially sensitive information in this log. Users with access to the robotic task can also see execution logs. Never log personally identifiable information (PII), protected health information (PHI), decrypted values, or passwords as plain text.

Execution

Any data that is written to Appian Cloud databases during the execution of a robotic task adheres to our existing data privacy and retention standards.

Data flow from Appian

If your robotic task accesses existing data in an Appian database, consider where that data will be used and how it might be stored elsewhere. For example, if you use a robotic task to send Appian data to your HR system, you'll need to evaluate that software vendor's data privacy and storage practices prior to deployment.

Additionally, it's important to regularly evaluate and monitor the security of the robots where your robotic tasks are being executed. Consider who has access to files that the robotic task regularly generates, updates, or moves on these robots. If the files contain sensitive information, consider cleaning or removing the files appropriately.

Data flow to Appian

On the Appian side, if the robotic task is executed as part of a process model, any data passed back from the robotic task may be stored in the Process Details area during monitoring. Administrators should consider who has access to the application and process models if this data is sensitive and shouldn't be easily accessible.

You may also configure your robotic tasks to write or retrieve information in other databases. However, this type of access falls outside of Appian's security perimeter, and implementation must be tested for security independently.

Viewing results

You can control the information that is captured when manually executing a robotic task. In the Execution options, choose to record the execution and take screenshots along the way. If you're concerned about the information contained in the execution video or screenshot, disable these options when manually executing the robotic task.

However, there are robotic task actions that enable you to take screenshots during execution, which could override the manual execution option. Communicate with developers to ensure security concerns and guidelines are also respected in the robotic task code.

Execution results (including video and images, if captured) are visible to users who share permissions with the robotic task, so administrators can configure security by changing role maps as necessary.

Credentials

If a robotic task is tasked with logging into another program or a website, it should use credentials to input the username and password. Credentials store this information securely and retrieve it from the server when needed.

When you want a robotic task to have access to a login credential, the credentials must have at least one permission tag in common with that component.

All RPA credentials use AES 256-bit encryption, and follow the FIPS Security Model for Cryptographic Modules standard. When credentials are created or updated, they are securely encrypted and stored in a database. The encryption key used for credentials is unique not only to each environment, but also separate from the other keys that are used to encrypt other fields. Each key is stored securely in the Java KeyStore, the password for which is uniquely generated at site startup.

Robot pool security

Robot pools use role maps to determine which users have access.

The security role map of a robot pool controls whether users can modify it and its properties. Unlike some other objects, Robot Pools never inherit security.

The following table outlines the actions that can be completed for each permission level in a robot pool's security role map:

Actions	Administrator	Viewer
View robot pool membership	Yes	Yes
Add and remove robot pool members	Yes	No
View and modify robot pool security	Yes	No
Configure membership rules	Yes	No
Configure properties and attributes	Yes	No
Create a new pool as a child of the current pool	Yes	No
Delete the robot pool	Yes	No

Robot security

In the Appian 23.4 release, there was a change in how robot security is handled. Before this release, robots were secured using permission tags. However, starting from the Appian 23.4 release, newly created robots can only be secured using role maps.

You can easily manage your robots by using group-based role maps that include permission levels such as administrator, editor, viewer, and deny. This lets you mirror your existing design object security. And when you're in the robot management view or checking out robot details, you can quickly add or swap out security roles, making it simple to tap into your existing security groups and roles.

Security for robots consists of the following:

• system groups that manage access to the Operations Console, the RPA console, and the ability to create robots.
• security role maps that manage activities related to robots.

Robot security by system group

Action	RPA Operations Manager	Designer
Access the Operations Console and view the Robot Management page	Yes	Yes
Create a new robot	Yes	No

Robot security by role maps

Starting from the Appian 23.4 release, newly created robots can only be secured using role maps. The security role map of a robot controls whether users can view or modify it and its properties. Unlike some other objects, Robots never inherit security.

The following table outlines the actions that can be completed for each permission level in a robot's security role map:

Robot Actions	Administrator	Editor	Viewer	Deny
Monitor executions (Also requires Viewer, Editor, or Admin permission on the robotic task)	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
View list of robots	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
View robot dashboard (robot details)	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Edit properties	Yes	Yes	No	No
View security	Yes	Yes	No	No
Edit/Enable/Disable auto login	Yes	Yes	No	No
Update security	Yes	No	No	No
Download and install agents	Yes	No	No	No
Download and install auto-login	Yes	No	No	No
View live robots	Yes	No	No	No
Enable / Disable robot	Yes	No	No	No
Lock / Unlock robot input	Yes	No	No	No
Restart robot	Yes	No	No	No
Delete robot	Yes	No	No	No

Change robots from permission tags to role maps

If you are using Appian 23.4 or later, you can permanently switch your robots from using permission tags to role maps. Follow these steps in the Operations Console to transition a robot to security role maps and remove permission tags.

1. Use one of the following methods to navigate to the robot Robot Security screen from the Robot Management screen.

   Method	Example
   Select the checkbox next to the robot then click SECURITY.
   Select the robot you want to change. Result: The Robot Detail page displays. Select Security from the action menu.

2. Click Add Users or Groups.
   Result A blank line is added.
3. Complete one of the following options.
   • In the blank line, start entering the user or group you want to add and the system will auto-suggest a list of users and groups from which you can select.
   • Click the Create New Group button. Click Create when you are done creating the group.
4. Select the Permission Level you want the user or group to have: Administrator, Editor, Viewer, or Deny.
5. Select Save Changes.
   Result: Appian removes the permission tags from the robot and replaces the security with the security role maps you added.

Robot keys

You can also securely automate the installation of agents and the auto-login service on your Windows host machines by using robot keys. A robot's unique identity is encapsulated in a single robot key, allowing you to store these keys in your own secure credentials manager and rotate them on demand. Robot keys are optional, so you have the flexibility to choose between using robot keys or continuing to use the standard installation process. For complete information about enabling and using robot keys, see the Use robot keys for authentication topic on the Manage Robots page.

Permission tags

Permission tags are used to:

• Allow users to access robots (Appian 23.3 and earlier only).
• Define which queues a robotic task can act on.
• Define which credentials can be used with a robotic task.

Different users can access the same robot, queue, or credential no matter what their role is – they just need to share a tag with that component.

Types of permission tags

There are two types of permissions in Appian RPA:

• Regular permission: Regular permissions are granted by tags that don't end with an exclamation mark. These permissions don't rely on any other permissions. Any components sharing at least one permission will be able to see each other.
  • For example, if a user and a robot are both given the operations permission tag, the user can see the robot.
• Mandatory permission: Mandatory permissions are also granted by tags, but end with an exclamation mark. If more than one mandatory permission tag is present, the component can only see or access other components that have all of their same mandatory permission tags.
  • For example, if a user and a robot share the operations permission tag, but the robot also has an hr! tag that the user doesn't have, then the user won't be able to interact with the robot.

To make a user, robot, queue, or credential visible to another component, both must share at least one permission tag. If a component has more than one mandatory permission tag, the components must share all mandatory permission tags.

Assign or edit permission tags

Required role: Developer or Administrator

When you want a user to have access to a robot in Appian 23.3 and earlier, they must have at least one permission in common. You can assign permissions to users and robots in similar ways.

Based on your role, you can assign permission tags as follows:

Role	Assign Permissions to Users	Assign Permissions to Robots (Appian 23.3 and earlier)
Operations Manager	No	No
Developer	No	Yes (if permissions in common)
Administrator	Yes	Yes

Manage user permission tags

Complete the following steps to assign or edit user permissions.

1. Go to the Users tab in Appian RPA.
2. In the table on that tab, locate the user.

3. In the Actions column for that row, click the lock icon . The Permissions window displays.

   

4. In this window, select or deselect permission tags. If your role is Developer, the list of selectable tags contains only tags assigned to you. If your role is Administrator, the list contains all tags in your system.
5. (Administrators only) Type the name of a new permission, and press Enter.
6. Click OK to save your edits.

Modify user permission tags in bulk

Required role: Administrator

As more people access the Appian RPA console, security is important to consider. Administrators can add or remove permissions for multiple users at once:

1. Go to the Users tab in the Appian RPA console.
2. Find the users whose permissions you want to edit. For each user, check the box in the Sel. column.
3. Click the Permissions icon at the top of the list. In the Permissions window, two fields appear:
   • In all selected users: The permissions in this field are present for all selected users. You can add or remove permissions in this field.
   • In some selected users: The permissions in this field are present for some, but not all, selected users. You can remove permissions in this field.
4. Type a tag in the In all selected users field and press Enter to add the permission to all selected users. If the permission already exists, Appian RPA shows it as a suggestion as you type. Click a suggested permission to add it.
5. You can also remove permissions in either field. Click the X for any tag to remove it from the users who have it.

Securely access Appian design objects

If your robotic task interacts with other design objects, you'll need to set up permissions so these objects can be accessed as needed.

Example

To demonstrate how permissions work between Appian RPA and other design objects, we'll use an example:

Suppose your robotic task executes within a process model that processes internal transfer requests. The process model is in an Appian application called RP_Company Transfers. The robotic task will interact with the PeopleSoft user interface to gather data about the employee who requests a transfer and then send it back to the process model to write it into the datastore. The application has three security groups: Administrators (with admin privileges), HR Managers (with editor privileges), and All HR Users (with view privileges).

For robotic tasks to write data into the datastore, they should be associated with a security group that has adequate permissions. Since the datastore security setup lists HR Managers as editors, assigning HR Managers to the robotic task's role map allows it to inherit the editor privileges for the datastore and any additional permissions configured for the group. This configuration means that robotic tasks assigned the HR Managers group can gather and write data seamlessly. Alternatively, if you make the service account an Administrator, it will have universal access.

Ensure that your objects are assigned appropriate role maps aligning with their functions and required access levels to maintain secure and efficient operations.