Oracle Database Releases, Options, Feature and Components
Earlier this week, Oracle quietly released the RPM packages for Oracle 23ai Free Edition for ARM64 systems. This release is very interesting for developers using Macs with ARM processors as it allows them to create Oracle 23ai containers for their development and engineering environments. In this blog post, I’ll walk you through the steps of […]
In my latest SOUG Espresso session, Easy Audit Data Analysis with SQL Developer Reports, I focused on Oracle Unified Audit Analysis. This was an opportunity to share my experience and insights into database security and audit data workflow enhancement. Event Highlights Based on my considerable experience with Oracle databases, I emphasized the critical importance of […]
On January 18, Oracle unveiled its first quarterly Critical Patch Update Advisory of the year. This advisory, a pivotal resource for Oracle users, details an array of 389 new security patches across various Oracle product families. This update includes several high-severity vulnerabilities, notably those that can be exploited remotely over the network, with some having […]
Today, my initial plan was simply to finalize my article on DBSat 3.0.0 for the Oraworld Magazine. However, while checking the links to the DBSat documentation, Oracle Support Notes, and download sources, I discovered that Oracle has, almost simultaneously, released the latest version 3.1.0 of the Oracle Database Security Assessment Tool (DBSAT). Once again, this […]
In one of my last blog post SQL Toolbox for simplified Oracle Unified Audit Data Analysis, I introduced a set of scripts designed to streamline Oracle Unified Audit data analysis. These scripts, now available on my GitHub repository oehrlis/oradba, have received positive feedback. Building on that, I’d like to explore an alternative approach to augment […]
I have previously published a couple of blog posts related to Kerberos authentication for databases. In this post, I want to provide a simple, step-by-step tutorial for configuring Kerberos authentication. This tutorial is based on my lab setup within Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Within this environment, I run both a database server and a corresponding […]
On October 17, Oracle released its quarterly Critical Patch Update Advisory. This comprehensive advisory contains details about 387 new security patches for various Oracle product families. Among them are some serious vulnerabilities that can be exploited remotely over the network, i.e. with a CVSS rating of 9 or more. The entire advisory can be found […]
Today’s #JoelKallmanDay, my topic is about simplifying the configuration of Kerberos authentication of Oracle databases using Linux tools. I have already written a few things about Kerberos in the past. The blog posts on this topic are usually tagged with Kerberos. Today I want to show you an alternative method how to create the keytab […]
On my journey through the area of database security, Oracle Unified Audit has been a constant companion. I not only created audit concepts, but also often had the opportunity to implement them. Besides the configuration, the administration and evaluation of the audit data was always part of it. Occasionally I used scripts for this. However, […]
While you may be familiar with the essential configuration files, sqlnet.ora and tnsnames.ora, did you know that there’s a hidden path to unlock greater flexibility in Oracle Net Service configuration?
Oracle Database 23c Free – Developer Release is all over since Oracle released it yesterday. See the Official Oracle pages Oracle Database Free or the blog post by Gerald Venzl Introducing Oracle Database 23c Free – Developer Release. Connor McDonald even got a special delivery from Oracle. A few important web pages related to Oracle […]
With the introduction of Oracle Unified Audit, Oracle has completely redesigned the process of logging audit events. With the new unified audit trail, there is only one place where audit records are stored. Ok, the audit trail exists per PDB and for a read only database additionally somehow as a binary overflow file. However, the […]
The tnsnames.ora is a configuration file for Oracle database respectively Oracle Net Service Names resolution. It contains network service names that are mapped to connection descriptors for the local naming method. With the help of tnsnames.ora Oracle clients respectively the users can easily access Oracle databases. The connection descriptors provides all relevant information like host, […]
The tnsnames.ora is a configuration file for Oracle database name resolution. It contains network service names that are mapped to connection descriptors for the local naming method. With the help of tnsnames.ora Oracle clients respectively the users can easily access Oracle databases. The connection descriptors provides all relevant information like host, Port, service name etc. […]
This morning I had the opportunity to give a presentation on Oracle Database Vault at the DOAG conference. Abstract Oracle Database Vault has been on the market for a few years now. The product has been constantly improved over the years. But where is it worthwhile to use it? Which security measures can be implemented […]
This morning I had the great opportunity to participate in the virtual event AUSOUG Connect 2021 with my lecture Security Best Practice: Oracle passwords, but secure!. For me it was a premiere and a pleasure to be part of an Oracle event in Australia. Oracle Password Security is a small but central topic in database […]
It happens that the children are at school and the wife is at work in the hospital. For lunch a light snack from the takeaway around the corner would be perfect. No problem at work in the city, but when working from home? The offer in my area is relatively modest. Hey but why not […]
A few hours ago Oracle published a blog post about the new version Oracle 21c. See Introducing Oracle Database 21c. It is again an innovation release with a couple of interesting new features and enhancements. The online Oracle Documentation library does provide a few information on this enhancements: Oracle Database 21c What’s New Oracle® Database […]
Today I held my presentation about Oracle security best practice “Oracle passwords, but secure!” at the virtual UKOUG event. Unfortunately, this year the beautiful view of Brighton beach and the active exchange with colleagues was missing. Ok, on the other hand I was able to enjoy the first snow in Switzerland with my children. 😊 […]
Since I’m always short of time for a longer blog post, I’ll just try a short one. Intended as a mini-series, I will show different configuration examples for Oracle Enterprise User Security. Today I’ll start with the configuration of EUS based proxy privileges. The environment I use is DOE, my Docker based Oracle Engineering environment. […]
When it comes to the conception and implementation of a central user administration of Oracle databases, authentication is one of the central topics. Often there is a need for integration with an existing directory service or IAM solution. Whereby usually MS Active Directory is involved. But Oracle Databases and MS Active Directories are not yet […]
It is way too long ago since my last blog post. These were or are busy weeks for me. Any way, I finally found some time to start writing a blog post about a special setup for kerberos authentication of Oracle databases. It is about configuring kerberos authentication for multiple database servers with only one […]
Today I did have my first presentation at the UKOUG TechFest 2019 in Brighton. Looking back it was a great day with many interesting lectures and good conversations with colleagues and partners. After a long and exhausting day I’ll take a few minutes to sum up my presentation about the PDB isolation and Security. When […]
Recently I came across the situation where I have to configure Enterpriser User Security for a database server with multiple databases for different directories. This is quite tricky when using a shared Oracle Home and a central TNS_ADMIN directory for SQLNet configuration. A common TNS_ADMIN also implies the use of only one ldap.ora file. Several […]
A crucial aspect of any database audit concept is the management and maintenance of audit trails. Depending on the defined audit policies and the database activity, an audit trail can grow relatively quickly. Oracle Multitenant environments increase the operational effort because the root container and each PDB uses their own audit trail. Ok, for a […]
Recently, just in the middle of the summer holidays, Oracle has released the third Critical Patch Advisory for its products. It seems there’s a lot of work going on in Redwood Shore. Oracle has fixed about 319 security vulnerabilities across their products. The Oracle database is relatively prominently represented with 9 security vulnerabilities and a […]
Due to a tip from a work colleague, I came across a changed behaviour of the latest SQL Developer release. It affects the connection type LDAP respectively the use of an LDAP directory for the database name resolution. After specifying one or more LDAP servers it should actually be possible to select the corresponding context […]
As part of a customer project I am currently enhancing PDB security and isolation. Since OS interaction is necessary, I can not just use lockdown profile to block OS access. The idea is to isolate the PDB with lockdown profiles and allow dedicated OS access. The idea is to isolate the PDB with lockdown profiles […]
Today I did have the opportunity to give a presentation on Oracle Database in Docker at the SOUG day in Olten. It was a great opportunity to discuss how Oracle database engineering can be simplified using Docker. Besides the demo the following topics were discussed: Docker images, container and volumes Requirements to setup Oracle database […]
With the introduction of Oracle 18c, eusm is officially designated as an Enterprise User Security Utility. It is now officially documented of the Enterprise User Security Administrator’s Guide. Before we had to be content with the somewhat sparse MOS note 1085065.1 EUSM, Command Line Tool For EUS Administration and Some EUS Good to Knows. In […]
Recently I’ve update the java installation of my Oracle Unified Directory (OUD) 12.2.1.0.3 to the latest release. Java 1.8.0 update 202 to be exact (p28916775_180202_Linux-x86-64.zip). Actually a piece of cake, I’ve done this a few times in the past. My Enterprise User Security (EUS) test environment is running in Docker. A container for the database […]
Oracle has recently published the Critical Patch Update Advisory for the October 2018. It’s once more quite a heavy update with not less than 301 security vulnerability fixes across the Oracle products. The Oracle database is relatively prominently represented with 3 security vulnerabilities and a maximal CVSS rating of 9.8. The problem CVE-2018-3259 with such […]
A few days ago the semi-annual Trivadis TechEvent took place. As always, it was a great IT event where Trivadis employees and customers had the opportunity to exchange and discuss a variety of topics. I had the pleasure to give one lecture about Oracle 18c New Security Features as well one on Oracle Enterprise User […]
Today Oracle has published the Pre-Release Announcement for the July 2018 Critical Patch Update. It’s quite a heavy update with not less than 334 security vulnerability fixes across the Oracle products. The Oracle database is relatively prominently represented with 3 security vulnerabilities and a maximal CVSS rating of 9.8. Of the vulnerabilities is remotely exploitable […]
Today I had the opportunity to give a presentation on Oracle 18c new Security Features at the SOUG day in Baden. It was a great opportunity to discuss the security enhancements in the latest Oracle database release. This release introduces some new security features that simplify the secure operation of on-premises or cloud-based databases. Especially […]
Oracle recently released the spring Critical Patch Advisory. It is the first critical patch update, which also includes fixes for Oracle 18c. Over all it includes 254 new security fixes across the product families. Overall a rather large update, although only a security vulnerability is patched for the Oracle databases. This vulnerability is not remotely […]
Below you will find a list of the different demo scripts used during the DOAG training day 2017 Oracle 12c Release 2 Datenbank-Sicherheit in a Nutshell. In general the script do need a SCOTT or a HR demo schema. Some of the scripts may have more requirements eg. Kerberos configuration, Oracle Enterprise User Security etc. […]
The Oracle open world 2017 is over, the dust just settled down. A perfect time for Oracle to release the October critical patch advisory. With not less than 270 new security vulnerability fixes across the Oracle products it seems to be a rather huge update. From the DB perspective it is nothing unusual. It contains […]
A while ago I wrote two articles for the DOAG Red Stack Magazin. In the meantime both articles have been published. For this reason I use the opportunity to make the PDF versions of the articles available on oradba.ch. The articles are written in German and available as Trivadis version as well Red Stack version. […]
The new EU GDPR and Database Security in general keeps me busy. I’ve updated the list of speeches and events for the next couple of month. It’s an interesting mix between GDPR, Oracle Database Security and MS SQL Server 2016 security. Depending on the feedback of the Call For Papers for the DOAG Conference and […]
A couple of days ago I’ve successfully finished the DOAG Webinar on Oracle 12c Release 2 new Security Feature. It was a great opportunity to discuss the security enhancements in the latest Oracle database release. This release introduces some new security features that simplify the secure operation of on-premises or cloud-based databases. Especially the online […]
I’ve just updated the list of my public appearances and planned events. For once, no just Oracle Events 🙂 I’ll speak about the new EU GDPR and its impact on databases in a Trivadis regional customer event together with my colleague Stephan Hurni. Beside this two events I’ll hold a webinar on Oracle 12c Release […]
Last night Oracle released there new Critical Patch Update. From the DB perspective it is a rather small patch update. It just includes 2 fixes for security vulnerabilities on Oracle database 11.2.0.4 and 12.1.0.2. None of the vulnerabilities are remote exploitable without authentication but one fix is also for client only installations. The highest CVSS […]
It seems that Oracle brings us the new release with the first “spring rays”. Tonight Oracle has Updates the MOS Note 742060.1 Release Schedule of Current Database Releases. It now includes as well sections for Oracle public cloud releases, on-premises engineered systems as well on-premises server releases. In particular the section on-premises server release has […]
Oracle has published the first Critical Patch Update in 2017. It’s quite a huge update with not less than 270 new security vulnerability fixes across the Oracle products. For the Oracle Database itself are 5 security fixes available respectively 2 security fixes for the Oracle Database Server and 3 security fixes for Oracle Secure Backup […]
Oracle just released the documentation for Oracle 12c Release 2. It seems that most of the new security features are available as discussed in my presentation at DOAG SIG Security in Düsseldorf on the 18th of october. See docs.oracle.com for the documentation bookshelf. Yet a short summary of new security features Encryption TDE Tablespace Live […]
Having a reliable backup solution for your Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) or Enterprise User Security (EUS) Wallets, is beyond discussion. Nevertheless it can happen that you lose or corrupt the Oracle Wallet. With Transparent Data Encryption (TDE), this is really bad luck, because you can not access your encrypted data. Losing an EUS wallet is […]
Oracle has published the Pre-Release Announcement for the July 2016 Critical Patch Update. It’s quite a huge update with not less than 276 security vulnerability fixes across the Oracle products. For the Oracle Database itself are 9 security fixes available. Dies ist wiederum eines der größeren Critical Patch Update for databases. It does contain bug […]
Since the release of Oracle 12cR1 mid 2013 the network encryption and strong authentication services has been removed from the Oracle Advanced Security Option. Both feature are now available for any licensed editions. Corresponding section in the Oracle Licensing Guide for 11g R2 and 12c R1 has been updated. Network encryption (native network encryption and […]
The 2nd revised edition of the Der Oracle DBA will finally be released in a couple of days. Pre-Orders are already possible. It took quite a while until the publication of this release. Work on the second edition began as early as a year ago. This edition is again written in German and published by […]
Recently I’ve setup Oracle Enterprise User Security (EUS) with Oracle Unified Directory (OUD) on my favorite linux test system. Among regular 11.2.0.4 and 12.1.0.2 databases I do also have a 12.1.0.2 Container Database. EUS work like a charm on the regular databases but not on the PDB. SQL> conn soe Enter password: ERROR: ORA-28305: WALLET_LOCATION […]
I’ve just stumbled over an issue with the new checksum algorithm introduced with Oracle 12c. It seams that in certain situation the new SHA-2 function cause a memory leak. A search on My Oracle Support revealed that there is a Bug on AIX. See Bug 19451972 MEMEORY LEAKS WITH SHA512, SHA384, SHA256 ENTRIES IN SQLNET.CRYPTO_CHECKSUM […]
Oracle has published the Pre-Release Announcement for the July Critical Patch Update. This Critical Patch Update contains 193 new security vulnerability fixes across all Oracle products. It looks like that this CPU does contain a bunch of critical security fixes for Oracle databases. Actually there are 10 fixes for security vulnerabilities, 2 of them are […]
Just finished my presentation about Unified Audit at the DOAG SIG Security in München. It is about Oracle Unified Audit and a few considerations for migrating old standard audit to new policy based unified audit. The slides are available for download . Some impression for the event and my presentation.
Oracle has published the Pre-Release Announcement for the first Critical Patch Update in 2015. This Critical Patch Update contains 167 new security vulnerability fixes across all Oracle products. It looks like that this CPU does contain a bunch of critical security fixes for Oracle databases. Actually there are 7 fixes for security vulnerabilities, but none […]
I finally found some time to update my blog post on Oracle 12.1.0.2.0 Patchset released. Beside the list of new features, I have included a number of links related to this patch set.
About a week ago Oracle has released the first patchset 12.1.0.2.0 for Oracle 12c Release 1. So far the patch set is only available for Linux x86-64bit, Oracle Solaris SPARC 64bit and Oracle Solaris x86-64bit. You may download the Patchset on Oracle Software Delivery Cloud eDelivery.oracle.com, on Oracle Technology Network Oracle Database 12c Release 1 […]
The draft version of this blog post is lying around for some time in my inbox. I’ve never found time to finish it. But due to a task in a project it’s about time to finish my notes on Oracle’s Secure External Password Store. Ludovico, a work colleague has already written a blog post about Removing passwords from Oracle scripts earlier this year. I would like to complement the topic and discuss a few points specifically in connection with RMAN Backup’s and a central RMAN catalog. The goal remains the same, getting rid of passwords with a minimal operational effort.
Oracle has published the Pre-Release Announcement for the July 2014 Critical Patch Update. It looks like that the next Critical Patch Update is somewhat more extensive from the database point of view. It does contain six bug fix for some major security issues. Some of the vulnerabilities may be remotely exploitable without authentication. The security […]
As commonly known passwords should have a certain complexity. Thereby it is common to use special characters, numbers, lower and uppercase characters. Depending on the type of special characters Oracle require that the password is enclosed in double quotation marks. Oracle does provide a guideline for Securing Passwords in the Oracle® Database Security Guide. So […]
Due to some problems during the installation of Oracle Audit Vault and Database Firewall 12.1.2 (see AVDF installation fails on HP server with Smart Array Disk Controller), I’ve looked at the AVDF ISO image and its kickstart setup. AVDF 12.1.2 is based on Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.9. To setup or upgrade AVDF it is required […]
A couple of days ago Trivadis released the Trivadis PL/SQL & SQL CodeChecker (tvdcc) as SQL Developer Extension. TVDCC does check the editor content for compliance violations of the Trivadis PL/SQL & SQL Coding Guidelines Version 2.0. Quote from the blog post of my work colleague: Furthermore McCabe’s cyclomatic complexity, Halstead’s volume, the maintainability index […]
While writing a post about the new Critical Patch Advisory I’ve discovered, that Oracle made the Information about the OpenSSL Vulnerability publicly available. The information in MOS Note 1645479.1 has been moved to OpenSSL Security Bug – Heartbleed CVE-2014-0160. Until now it looks like that Oracle Databases are not affected since they do not use […]
As announced last week in my post Oracle CPU / PSU Pre-Release Announcement April 2014, Oracle has now released the Critical Patch Updates for April 2014. Overall this CPU contains 104 new security fixes across several Oracle products like Database Server, MySQL Server, Sun Product Suite, WebLogic Server etc. For Oracle Database it contains only […]
Earlier this week the OpenSSL Project as well US-CERT informed about a Security Vulnerability in OpenSSL. See OpenSSL Security Advisory or US-CERT Alert (TA14-098A) The vulnerability may affect Oracle Products as well, since some of them do use OpenSSL. So far Oracle did not provide dedicate information on it’s public Critical Patch Updates and Security […]
The company I work for, Trivadis, organized again an exceptional event with top speakers in Zurich. This year’s focus will be on the Oracle Database query optimizer, also known as cost-based optimizer (CBO). The query optimizer is not only one of the most complex pieces of software that constitutes the Oracle kernel; it is also […]
Today Oracle has published the Pre-Release Announcement of the CPU Advisory for April 2014. This Critical Patch Update contains 103 new security vulnerability fixes for several Oracle products. There are only a few days since the publication of the vulnerability CVE-2014-0160 known as “Heartbleed”. Therefore I assume, that this patch update does not yet address […]
Today Oracle has published the Pre-Release Announcement for the first CPU Patch in 2014. This Critical Patch Update contains 147 new security vulnerability fixes for several Oracle products. From the Oracle database point of view it is a small update. There are only five security fix for the Oracle Database Server and no for client-only […]
As announced yesterday in my post Oracle CPU / PSU Pre-Release Announcement October 2013, Oracle has now released the last Critical Patch Updates for 2013. Overall this CPU contains 126 new security fixes across several Oracle products like Database Server, MySQL Server, Sun Product Suite, WebLogic Server etc. For Oracle Database it contains only 2 […]
During my preparation for the tests of October Critical Patch Updates (CPU), I stumbled over an interesting Oracle Support Document. I this document Oracle announced that there will nolonger be seperate SPU (Security Patch Update) respectively CPU (Critical Patch Update) for 12.1.0.1 and newer. Excerpt from Oracle support document 1581950.1 Database Security Patching from 12.1.0.1 […]
Oracle has published the Pre-Release Announcement for the October CPU/SPU Patch. This Critical Patch Update contains 126 new security vulnerability fixes for several Oracle products. Despite the large amount of security fixes, it is a rather small update from the database point of view. There are only two security fix for the Oracle Database Server […]
As discussed in my post ORA-00600 [kpdbModAdminPasswdInRoot: not CDB] when changing password of default account There is an unpublished bug 16901482 which cause an ORA-00600 when trying to set a new password for an Oracle default account like DBSNMP, DIP or OUTLN. On september 4th Oracle released the one-off patch 16901482 for this bug. A […]
Oracle has released the patchset 11.2.0.4.0 for Oracle 11g Release 2. The current patchset is as well as the other 11g R2 patchsets a full installation. This means you will have to download quite a bit from Metalink, altogether 7 files. On My Oracle Support search for patchset 13390677 or follow the link to reach […]
During the test on Oracle Database 12c I run into an interesting error respectively Chris Antongini has made me aware of it. If you try to change the password of an Oracle default account on a none CDB with SQL*Plus password you run into an ORA-00600 [kpdbModAdminPasswdInRoot: not CDB] and of course the password is […]
As Markus Flechtner has already mentioned in his blog, Oracle has started to record the last login time. It is a small but very useful 12c security feature and operates independently of the database audit. Nevertheless, there are some restrictions. But let’s start at the beginning… A simple example Ok, lets try to connect as […]
It is sometimes a bit of a hassle, to have the latest patch name or number on hand, when you need them. Ok, you may search on My Oracle Support and save it as custom search. But it may happen that the search is inaccurate and the required patch is not found. A much easier […]
Perl and Oracle has not always an easy past. Depending on the OS type and Oracle Version it can be quite nerve racking to compile DBI and DBD::Oracle. In addition to DBD::Oracle there are also other binary Perl modules that are not so easy to compile. On operating systems such as Microsoft Windows it is necessary to […]
It is not really a novum that you can directly query the alertlog from SQLPlus. Tanel Poder and others already have discussed this a while ago. Somehow I can never remember the name of the X$ view when I need it. So it is time to sum up the information a little bit. SQL> desc […]
Even with Oracle Database 12c, the quality of the database passwords is not enforced by default. A password verify function with the corresponding password resource limits has to be developed individually. As a basis one can use the script to setup the default password resource limits. The script is provided by Oracle and is used […]
About a week ago Oracle has released the July Critical Patch Updates. Overall this CPU contains 89 new security fixes across several Oracle products like Database Server, MySQL Server, Sun Product Suite, WebLogic Server etc. For Oracle Database Server it does contain 6 fixes, but none of them is for client-only installation. 1 of these […]
I’ve just uploaded the slides for my lecture Oracle 12c new security features, as I had promised this in my previous posts. (See also DOAG 2013 Datenbank or DOAG SIG Security). The slides is a consolidation of my presentations on the New Security Features in latest generation of Oracle Database and does no reflect 1:1 […]
Oracle still hasn’t officially announce the new Oracle Database 12c release. But since OTN database overview has been changed to 12c, I guess it is now somehow official. As rumors hinted, one of the main innovations are pluggable databases now named multitenant. Other important new features and products are: Adaptive Execution Plans Application Continuity Automatic […]
Since a few hours Oracle Database 12c is available for download on Oracle eDelivery platform. Currently it is just available for Linux x86_64. I assume that the official release is getting closer. I’ll post more details on that as well on a couple of new features soon.
I’ve just tried to get a few information from the Automatic Workload Repository (AWR). I actually wanted to put together an overview of various system metrics from DBA_HIST_SYSMETRIC_SUMMARY to create a chart. Unfortunately the data is stored as name/value pairs and not in columns. So it’s time again to convert rows to columns. There are […]
There are several way’s to find information on internal oracle errors like ORA-00600 and ORA-07445. Looking up google is one of them, but not in any case the best one. If you are using Oracle Metalink you may just search for the ORA-00600 and the error code of first argument or use the ORA-600/ORA-7445/ORA-700 Error […]
Following a question to the blog post Database Audit and Audit trail purging, I noticed something interesting about the DEFAULT_CLEANUP_INTERVAL parameter. On one hand, it is mandatory to initialize the audit trail and to define a DEFAULT_CLEANUP_INTERVAL, on the other hand, the parameter is not used at all. Oracle explains this in the MOS note Parameter […]
As I announced a while ago in SOUG Special Interest Group Baden March 21st I’ll speak again about some improvements in the latest generation of Oracle Database. The content of the presentation is a mixture of the presentations I’ve lectured at SOUG SIG Baden and DOAG SIG Security Munich. It covers the following possible new […]
Just a couple of hours ago I’ve lecture a presentation about the latest Generation of Database Technology at the DOAG SIG Security in München. It is a sneak preview on a few upcoming security improvements. Unfortunately I do not yet have the permission to provide the presentation for download. But I will make the download […]
In about two weeks I will participate at the SOUG special interest group at Baden. I will present a paper entitled “New Security Features in latest generation of Oracle Database“. Where latest generation of Oracle Database does not stand for an other Oracle 11g release. But that’s an other story… The aim of the presentation […]
As announced in my post about Oracle’s pre-release announcement of last week, Oracle has now released the first Critical Patch Updates for 2013. Overall this CPU contains 86 new security fixes across several Oracle products like Database Server, MySQL Server, Sun Product Suite, WebLogic Server etc. For products like Oracle Database Mobile it does contain […]
Once again, Oracle has published the Pre-Release Announcement for the first CPU Patch in 2013. This Critical Patch Update is reasonably small and contains 86 new security vulnerability fixes for several Oracle products. Only one of these fixes is just for the Oracle Database Server.
Today Oracle has published the Pre-Release Announcement for the october CPU Patch. This Critical Patch Update contains 109 new security vulnerability fixes for several Oracle products. 5 of these fixes are just for the Oracle Database Server.
A few days after the last critical patch update Oracle had to post security alert for CVE-2012-1675. The issue also known as “TNS Listener Poison Attack” is affecting any Oracle Database Server. As a personal reference I have summarized the most important information about this topic.
The DOAG regional group is organizing together with SOUG a Security Lounge on the 24th of April. I’ll attend this event with two short presentations on Database Security and Oracle Auditing.
I’ve Just finished my presentation at the Oracle Database Security Event at Düsseldorf and Berlin. Link to the Slide is provided in this post.
This post focuses on init.ora parameters. It is not really new topic, but rather a personal reference to some practical queries and scripts. If you are the customer, it’s always handy when you can easily access your own queries.
Oracle has officially released the CPU / PSU Patches for january 2012. The Critical Patch Updates contains 78 security fixes across all products. But only two out of this 78 fixes are for Oracle databases.
Oracle has recently published the Pre-Release Announcement for the CPU Patch. This Critical Patch Update contains 78 new security vulnerability fixes for several Oracle products. 2 of these fixes are just for the Oracle Database Server.
I was on leave for the past few weeks. After digging through tons of e-mails I finally found time to look into EM 12 Cloud Control. Unfortunately, I’ve forgotten my SYSMAN password and the EM 12c test installation is no longer running. As you say: “Holidays where one forgets everything, must be good holidays.”
Oracle has just officially released the CPU / PSU Patches for october 2011. In contrast to the previously announced 56 bug fixes, there are now 57 bugfix. It looks like another bug fix for databases has been added to the CPU / PSU bundle.
Oracle has recently published the Pre-Release Announcement for the CPU Patch. This Critical Patch Update contains 56 new security vulnerability fixes for several Oracle products. 4 of these fixes are just for the Oracle Database Server.
Just realized, that the Patchset 11.2.0.3.0 has been released for Solaris SPARC 64 and Solaris x86-64
Almost a week ago Oracle has released the latest patch set 11.2.0.3.0 for Oracle 11g Release 2. So far the patch set has only be released for Linux 32bit and 64bit.
It looks that not only diamonds are forever but also tablespace quotas. Due to the fact that Oracle has a history of tablespaces, it’s kind of obvious that it also keeps information quotas. Is this an expected behavior? What could be the impact ?
Tablespace point in time recovery (TSPITR) in particular, the fully automatic TSPITR is not a 11g new feature. It is likely that this can be used without any problem. But it looks like that a bug has been introduced with the latest patchset (11.2.0.2). What is the problem and how can it be workaround?
What happens to my database when switching on Oracle standard audit? Should set AUDIT_TRAIL to the DB or to OS or XML? To answer the last question we have to consider the safe storage and analysis of audit data. Is that all? What about Performance?
Setting up database audit is fairly easy. Since the availability of DBMS_AUDIT_MGMT the housekeeping of the audit trail is just a trifle. After the introduction of DBMS_AUDIT_MGMT in an post early this February, I would like to take a closer look at the housekeeping of the Audit Trail and provide a simple example how this could be implemented.
When performing a database security audit various informations about users, roles and privileges have to be collected, including “who has unlimited tablespace on SYSTEM”. It is quite easy to find user with UNLIMITED TABLESPACE or a UNLIMITED quota on SYSTEM. But what when the system privilege is assigned to a role or over several roles? It is still easy if you use hierarchical queries to drill down the cascaded roles, but there is plenty to write…
For the CPU Patch test I’ll have to download a patch’s and patchset on a regular basis. Download the patch’s via a Web browser can be very time consuming. A download manager or a script based download is simplifying the patch download. As a side effect when downloading with a script, the files can be stored directly on the database or a staging server.
Late last week Oracle published the Oracle Critical Patch Update Pre-Release Announcement – April 2011. The official Oracle Critical Patch Update for April 2011 will be released somewhen on the 19th of april. This CPU includes up to 73 security fixes for all kind of Oracle products. 6 out of them are just forfor the […]
Just finished my presentation about audit management with DBMS_AUDIT_MGMT at the SOUG Special Interest Group Event in Baden. I’m glad having a MIFI so I can immediately upload the slides 🙂 and still have some time for the aperitif…. I’m happy for any comment on the presentation or the slides. Feel free to add a […]
On the 24 of March I’ll have a presentation on Database Audit and DBMS_AUDIT_MGMT at the SOUG SIG Event. The presentation is about 30 minutes and will cover a rough overview of DBMS_AUDIT_MGMT, latest Issues and Bugs as well some Ideas on how audit could be simplified. Have a look at the SOUG Webpage for […]
With 11g R1 Oracle introduced case sensitive passwords for database accounts based on the SHA1 hash algorithm. This feature can easily be enabled with the init.ora parameter SEC_CASE_SENSITIVE_LOGON. As soon as this parameter is set to true, all new passwords will be case sensitive. Existing passwords will remain case insensitive until they are changed.
The downside of this new feature is, that the passwords are also stored with the pre-11g database password hash. This is a potential security leak. The pre-11g password hash string from USER$ can be used to crack the case insensitive version of the password. All kind of tools, utilities, password lists etc are available to do this. As soon as the case insensitive version of the password is known, the case sensitive password can be guessed.
To get rid of this security leak, the pre-11g database password hashes have to be cleared. This blog post shows how this can be done.
I’ve recently wrote an DOAG article about Managing Audit Trails with dbms_audit_mgmt, which has been officially introduced in Oracle 11g R2. This blog post is just to link the article and provides a few more information.
Oracle released the January Critical Patch Update. Over all it includes 66 fixes, 7 out of them are just for Oracle Database Server (Database Server, Secure Backup, Audit Vault).
If time permits, I try to have a look once a day at the Knowledge Articles listed on my My Oracle Support (MOS) Dashboard. I’ve configured my Dashboard to show recently updated knowledge articles and alerts. Before Metalink was migrated to the flash based My Oracle Support, it was possible to configure a regularly e-mail […]
I’ve screwed up somehow this post and created a new one Case Sensitive Passwords and Strong User Authentication. This is mini post is just to make sure that an already published permalink does not points to /dev/null…
I’ve screwed up somehow this post and created a new one Manage Audit Trails with DBMS_AUDIT_MGMT. This is mini post is just to make sure that an already published permalink does not points to /dev/null…