A Challenging Start with a Silver Lining The DOAG Conference 2024 began with an eventful journey for me, Dani Schnider, and Martin Berger. A major train disruption in Memmingen forced us to switch to a rental car, turning our trip into an unplanned road trip. Despite the hiccups, we made good use of the time […]
The past few days have been an exciting time for Oracle database enthusiasts across Switzerland. The Swiss Oracle User Group (SOUG) organized two fantastic events: the larger SOUG Day in Zurich on September 20th, 2024, and a more intimate gathering in French-speaking Switzerland on September 24th, 2024. Both events attracted Oracle professionals from across the […]
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 […]
It’s a wrap. The DOAG database conference has come to an end. As I sit on the train, I reflect on a week full of excitement and variety. In addition to the many fascinating technical presentations, I had the opportunity to catch up with old friends and colleagues. The conference started on Monday afternoon when […]
The wait is over! After a long break, Oracle has launched a major update for its Database Security Assessment Tool, DBSAT. The latest version, DBSAT 3.0, includes a number of new features and enhancements, all aimed at increasing database security and optimizing compliance processes. In this post, I’ll look at what’s new in this release […]
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 […]
I recently wrote a blog post about Oracle SQLNet TLS encryption and how easy it is to configure. See also Oracle SQLNet TLS configuration simplified. This was followed by a short discussion about whether a simple ALTER USER … IDENTIFIED BY is encrypted in a regular connection or not. So let’s validate this by examining […]
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?
Over the past two days, I had the opportunity to participate in the AOUG User Conference as a speaker and presenter. Like in previous years, the conference took place at the Austria Trend Hotel Savoyen. The theme for this year was “Everything Cloud?” The first day of the conference started off in a smaller setting […]
Just realized that under some conditions audit policies are not shown in AUDIT_UNIFIED_POLICIES. This blog post does provide a few information and a test case.
In December 2021, the critical vulnerability in Apache Log4j (CVE-2021-44228) was disclosed. With a CVSS rating of 10 out of 10, this vulnerability was or is extremely critical. Especially since Log4j is used relatively widely. Despite a great effort, many applications could only be corrected with a delay. Thus, it is not surprising that this […]
As you could see in my blog post as well as presentations of the last months, I use Excalidraw for drawing hand-drawn like diagrams for a while now. A colleague at work made me aware of the tool. A colleague at work made me aware of the tool. And since the first use of Excalidraw, […]
After a long time with work and vacations at home, is now soon again vacation time. The ideal time to travel more and discover new places. For me, that includes taking my dusty photography equipment with me. However, it’s not quite like it used to be. The days are gone when I carried a bag […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
If you’ve landed here, you’ve probably followed one of my tweets with the URL url.oradba.ch/30hnNDL. I did use the MarsEdit functionality to download and update the side template. MarsEdit creates a new posts, which will be deleted immediately. The problem is when new posts are automatically published directly on twitter. Of course, the tweet is […]
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 […]
One of the important challenges with Docker is to get used to the image layers and the layered file system. It quickly happens that you unintentionally have too much data in an intermediate layer. Either log files, installation software or login credentials. Whereby the first two “only” blow up the Docker image unnecessarily, while the […]
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 […]
This week Oracle has sent a small Christmas gift for its AVDF customers. They Released the second bundle patch for Audit Vault and Database Firewall 12.1.1. In contrast to the BP1 there is no full installation image available. New installations will have to start with the full installation image from BP1 (Patch 16965974) and apply […]
Basically I’ve solved this issue quite a while ago. Unfortunately I did not wrote any kind of documentation. That’s why I run again into SSLHandshakeException with my Eclipse installation on my new MacBook Pro, when trying to access our JIRA environment. As it now hopefully take a while until I buy again a new MacBook […]
A few times a year I create a new linux VM. I usually do this by using a kickstart server. The kickstart configuration file I normally use is creating a swap partition which is to small for an Oracle database server. Unfortunately, I forget regularly how to resize the swap partition. Here are the steps using fdisk.
For once I do not write anything related to Oracle Database Technologies and Security. After I’ve been asked from time to time, what I’ve installed on my iPad, it is time to put things together again. My first favorite IOS app post is born.
My first post on my new homepage. Just a simple post to say hello and test some syntax…