HECVAT & Higher Education

How psLens aligns with the Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Tool (HECVAT), FERPA data boundaries, single-tenant hosting, and on-premises deployment.
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This page documents how psLens aligns with the Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Tool (HECVAT v4), FERPA compliance requirements, and university information security evaluations.

Institutions evaluating psLens can request our pre-populated HECVAT Lite or HECVAT On-Premises assessment workbook by contacting security@cedarhillsgroup.com.

1. FERPA and Student Data Boundaries

psLens is designed exclusively for PeopleTools system administration, security auditing, and operational monitoring.

  • No Student or Financial Data: psLens does not query, replicate, or store student education records, financial aid data, payment information, or course grades.
  • Enforced Table Whitelist: All queries execute against an institution-managed table whitelist (PS_CHG_PSLENS_WL) on the PeopleSoft application server. Queries targeting non-whitelisted records (e.g., student tables like PS_STDNT_ENRL or PS_ACAD_PROG) are rejected before execution.
  • In-Memory Operator Auditing: While PeopleTools security tables contain administrative operator IDs (PSOPRDEFN) and operator email addresses (PSUSEREMAIL) for access auditing, this data is processed in memory during active user requests and is not permanently synced to external databases.

2. Authentication and Access Control (AAAI)

  • Single Sign-On (SSO): psLens supports native OpenID Connect (OIDC) Single Sign-On against campus identity providers, including Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, Google Workspace, and Keycloak.
  • Email One-Time Passcode (OTP): For deployments without SSO, authentication uses 6-digit email passcodes restricted to a verified institution email domain allowlist.
  • Credential Storage: PeopleSoft service account credentials used by psLens are encrypted at rest using AES-256-GCM. Decryption keys are loaded from environment variables or enterprise secret vaults (e.g., 1Password) at boot time.
  • Session Management: Web sessions are stored in HTTP-only, secure cookies with configurable inactivity timeouts.

3. Data Residency and Hosting Models (DATA & DCTR)

Institutions can choose between two deployment models based on risk tolerance and data residency policies:

AttributeDedicated Managed InstanceSelf-Hosted Docker Container
Hosting LocationSingle-tenant container on Fly.ioUniversity private cloud, VM, or on-premises server
Network EgressDedicated static egress IP or private Tailscale VPNInternal network only; zero outbound internet required
Data ResidencyCustomer-selected geographic cloud region100% on-premises within university data center
Data PersistencePer-tenant volume (/data) storing report markdown & alert logsLocal Docker volume managed by university storage
Phone-Home / TelemetryNoneNone

Both options provide isolated single-tenancy. No multi-tenant shared databases or shared application processes are used.

4. System Integrity and Least Privilege

  • Read-Only by Design: The SWS framework installed on PeopleSoft provides read-only SQL queries via Integration Broker. The psLens application and SWS framework contain zero INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, or DROP endpoints.
  • Standard Integration Broker Channel: psLens connects via standard HTTPS REST calls to the PeopleSoft Integration Broker listening connector. It does not require direct database listeners (e.g., Oracle 1521 or SQL Server 1433) or direct database administrator accounts.
  • Independent Failure Domain: psLens operates out-of-band as an observability window. If the psLens service is interrupted or disabled, PeopleSoft core processing, student self-service, and batch jobs continue unaffected.

5. Application Security & Vulnerability Management (VULN)

  • Static Binary Architecture: psLens compiles to a standalone Go binary with minimal external dependencies, eliminating Node.js/npm and dynamic runtime attack surfaces.
  • Automated CI Scanning: Every code release is automatically scanned for known vulnerabilities using Go’s official govulncheck tool and Dependabot alerts.
  • Institution Vulnerability Testing: Cedar Hills Group welcomes institutions to conduct vulnerability scans and penetration tests against their dedicated evaluation or staging instances under a mutually agreed testing window.

6. Artificial Intelligence and MCP Alignment

psLens includes optional Model Context Protocol (MCP) server support to allow authorized local developer tools to inspect PeopleTools metadata.

  • No Third-Party AI Data Transmission: psLens does not transmit institutional data to external AI model providers (such as OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google).
  • No Model Training: psLens does not train, fine-tune, or retain institutional data in any machine learning or large language model.
  • Feature Disablement: MCP endpoints can be completely disabled in configuration by omitting the MCP listener settings.

7. Business Continuity and Offboarding

  • No Vendor Lock-In: Because psLens relies on standard Docker containers and requires no cloud licensing handshake, the application remains fully functional on customer infrastructure even in the event of vendor dissolution.
  • Data Portability & Offboarding: On contract termination, institutions can export all historical report markdown files and configuration state directly from their /data volume. Managed instances on Fly.io are securely decommissioned and persistent storage volumes are permanently destroyed.