Preface

This document provides a comprehensive overview of security for Oracle Database. It includes conceptual information about security requirements and threats, descriptions of Oracle Database security features, and procedural information that explains how to use those features to secure your database.

This preface contains these topics:

Audience

The Oracle Database Security Guide is intended for database administrators (DBAs), security administrators, application developers, and others tasked with performing the following operations securely and efficiently:

Designing and implementing security policies to protect the organization's data, users, and applications from accidental, inappropriate, or unauthorized actions
Creating and enforcing policies and practices of auditing and accountability for any such inappropriate or unauthorized actions
Creating, maintaining, and terminating user accounts, passwords, roles, and privileges
Developing applications that provide desired services securely in a variety of computational models, leveraging database and directory services to maximize both efficiency and client ease of use

To use this document, you need a basic understanding of how and why a database is used, as well as at least basic familiarity with SQL queries or programming.

Organization

This document contains:

Part I, "Overview of Security Considerations and Requirements"

Part I presents fundamental concepts of data security, and offers checklists and policies to aid in securing your site's data, operations, and users.

Chapter 1, "Security Requirements, Threats, and Concepts"

This chapter presents fundamental concepts of data security requirements and threats.

Chapter 2, "Security Checklists and Recommendations"

This chapter presents checklists, with brief explanations, for policies and practices that reduce your installation's vulnerabilities.

Chapter 3, "Security Policies and Tips"

This chapter presents basic general security policies, with specific chapter references, that apply to every site. These you must understand and apply to the unique considerations of your own site. The chapter also introduces general application design practices regarding roles and privileges.

Part II, "Security Features, Concepts, and Alternatives"

Part II presents methods and features that address the security requirements, threats, and concepts described in Part I.

Chapter 4, "Authentication Methods"

This chapter deals with verifying the identity of anyone who wants to use data, resources, or applications. Authentication establishes a trust relationship for further interactions as well as accountability linking access and actions to a specific identity.

Chapter 5, "Authorization: Privileges, Roles, Profiles, and Resource Limitations"

This chapter describes standard authorization processes that allow an entity to have certain levels of access and action, but which also limit the access, actions, and resources permitted to that entity.

Chapter 6, "Access Controls on Tables, Views, Synonyms, or Rows"

This chapter discusses protecting objects by using object-level privileges and views, as well as by designing and using policies to restrict access to specific tables, views, synonyms, or rows. Such policies invoke functions that you design to specify dynamic predicates establishing the restrictions.

Chapter 7, "Security Policies"

This chapter discusses security policies in separate sections dealing with system security, data security, user security, password management, and auditing. It concludes with a more detailed version of the checklist first presented in Chapter 2.

Chapter 8, "Database Auditing: Security Considerations"

This chapter presents auditing as the monitoring and recording of selected user database actions. Auditing can be based either on individual actions, such as the type of SQL statement executed, or on combinations of factors that can include user name, application, time, and so on. Security policies can trigger auditing when specified elements in an Oracle database are accessed or altered, including the contents within a specified object.

Part III, "Security Implementation, Configuration, and Administration"

Part III presents the details of setting up, configuring, and administering Oracle Database security features.

Chapter 9, "Administering Authentication"

This chapter describes the methods for creating and administering authentication by defining users and how they are to be identified and verified before access is granted. Chapter 9 discusses the four primary methods as database, external, global, and proxy authentication.

Chapter 10, "Administering User Privileges, Roles, and Profiles"

This chapter presents the interwoven tasks and considerations involved in granting, viewing, and revoking database user privileges and roles, and the profiles that contain them.

Chapter 11, "Configuring and Administering Auditing"

This chapter describes auditing and accountability to protect and preserve privacy for the information stored in databases, detect suspicious activities, and enable finely-tuned security responses.

Chapter 12, "Introducing Database Security for Application Developers"

This chapter provides an introduction to the security challenges that face application developers and includes an overview of Oracle Database features they can use to develop secure applications.

Chapter 13, "Using Virtual Private Database to Implement Application Security Policies"

This chapter discusses developing secure applications by using application context, fine-grained access control, or virtual private database to implement security policies.

Chapter 14, "Implementing Application Context and Fine-Grained Access Control"

This chapter provides several examples of applications developed using application context, fine-grained access control, and virtual private database. It includes code examples and their corresponding explanations.

Chapter 15, "Preserving User Identity in Multitiered Environments"

This chapter discusses developing secure multiple tier applications.

Chapter 16, "Developing Applications Using Data Encryption"

This chapter discusses how you can use data encryption to develop secure applications, and the strengths and weaknesses of using this feature.

Glossary

Index

Conventions

This section describes the conventions used in the text and code examples of this documentation set. It describes:

Conventions in Text

We use various conventions in text to help you more quickly identify special terms. The following table describes those conventions and provides examples of their use.

Convention	Meaning	Example
Bold	Bold typeface indicates terms that are defined in the text or terms that appear in a glossary, or both.	When you specify this clause, you create an index-organized table.
Italics	Italic typeface indicates book titles or emphasis.	Oracle Database Concepts Ensure that the recovery catalog and target database do not reside on the same disk.
`UPPERCASE monospace (fixed-width) font`	Uppercase monospace typeface indicates elements supplied by the system. Such elements include parameters, privileges, datatypes, RMAN keywords, SQL keywords, SQL*Plus or utility commands, packages and methods, as well as system-supplied column names, database objects and structures, usernames, and roles.	You can specify this clause only for a `NUMBER` column. You can back up the database by using the `BACKUP` command. Query the `TABLE_NAME` column in the `USER_TABLES` data dictionary view. Use the `DBMS_STATS`.`GENERATE_STATS` procedure.
`lowercase monospace (fixed-width) font`	Lowercase monospace typeface indicates executables, filenames, directory names, and sample user-supplied elements. Such elements include computer and database names, net service names, and connect identifiers, as well as user-supplied database objects and structures, column names, packages and classes, usernames and roles, program units, and parameter values. Note: Some programmatic elements use a mixture of UPPERCASE and lowercase. Enter these elements as shown.	Enter `sqlplus` to open SQL*Plus. The password is specified in the `orapwd` file. Back up the datafiles and control files in the `/disk1/oracle/dbs` directory. The `department_id`, `department_name`, and `location_id` columns are in the `hr.departments` table. Set the `QUERY_REWRITE_ENABLED` initialization parameter to `true.` Connect as `oe` user. The `JRepUtil` class implements these methods.
`lowercase italic monospace (fixed-width) font`	Lowercase italic monospace font represents placeholders or variables.	You can specify the `parallel_clause`. Run `U``old_release``.SQL` where `old_release` refers to the release you installed prior to upgrading.

Conventions in Code Examples

Code examples illustrate SQL, PL/SQL, SQL*Plus, or other command-line statements. They are displayed in a monospace (fixed-width) font and separated from normal text as shown in this example:

SELECT username FROM dba_users WHERE username = 'MIGRATE';

The following table describes typographic conventions used in code examples and provides examples of their use.

Convention	Meaning	Example
[ ]	Brackets enclose one or more optional items. Do not enter the brackets.	DECIMAL (digits [ , precision ])
{ }	Braces enclose two or more items, one of which is required. Do not enter the braces.	{ENABLE \| DISABLE}
\|	A vertical bar represents a choice of two or more options within brackets or braces. Enter one of the options. Do not enter the vertical bar.	{ENABLE \| DISABLE} [COMPRESS \| NOCOMPRESS]
...	Horizontal ellipsis points indicate either: That we have omitted parts of the code that are not directly related to the example That you can repeat a portion of the code	CREATE TABLE ... AS subquery; SELECT col1, col2, ... , coln FROM employees;
. . .	Vertical ellipsis points indicate that we have omitted several lines of code not directly related to the example.	SQL> SELECT NAME FROM V$DATAFILE; NAME ------------------------------------ /fsl/dbs/tbs_01.dbf /fs1/dbs/tbs_02.dbf . . . /fsl/dbs/tbs_09.dbf 9 rows selected.
Other notation	You must enter symbols other than brackets, braces, vertical bars, and ellipsis points as shown.	acctbal NUMBER(11,2); acct CONSTANT NUMBER(4) := 3;
Italics	Italicized text indicates placeholders or variables for which you must supply particular values.	CONNECT SYSTEM/system_password DB_NAME = database_name
UPPERCASE	Uppercase typeface indicates elements supplied by the system. We show these terms in uppercase in order to distinguish them from terms you define. Unless terms appear in brackets, enter them in the order and with the spelling shown. However, because these terms are not case sensitive, you can enter them in lowercase.	SELECT last_name, employee_id FROM employees; SELECT * FROM USER_TABLES; DROP TABLE hr.employees;
lowercase	Lowercase typeface indicates programmatic elements that you supply. For example, lowercase indicates names of tables, columns, or files. Note: Some programmatic elements use a mixture of UPPERCASE and lowercase. Enter these elements as shown.	SELECT last_name, employee_id FROM employees; sqlplus hr/hr CREATE USER mjones IDENTIFIED BY ty3MU9;

Conventions for Windows Operating Systems

The following table describes conventions for Windows operating systems and provides examples of their use.

Convention	Meaning	Example
Choose Start >	How to start a program.	To start the Database Configuration Assistant, choose Start > Programs > Oracle - HOME_NAME > Configuration and Migration Tools > Database Configuration Assistant.
File and directory names	File and directory names are not case sensitive. The following special characters are not allowed: left angle bracket (<), right angle bracket (>), colon (:), double quotation marks ("), slash (/), pipe (\|), and dash (-). The special character backslash (\) is treated as an element separator, even when it appears in quotes. If the file name begins with \\, then Windows assumes it uses the Universal Naming Convention.	c:\winnt"\"system32 is the same as C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32
`C:\>`	Represents the Windows command prompt of the current hard disk drive. The escape character in a command prompt is the caret (^). Your prompt reflects the subdirectory in which you are working. Referred to as the command prompt in this manual.	C:\oracle\oradata>
Special characters	The backslash (\) special character is sometimes required as an escape character for the double quotation mark (") special character at the Windows command prompt. Parentheses and the single quotation mark (') do not require an escape character. Refer to your Windows operating system documentation for more information on escape and special characters.	C:\>exp scott/tiger TABLES=emp QUERY=\"WHERE job='SALESMAN' and sal<1600\" C:\>imp SYSTEM/password FROMUSER=scott TABLES=(emp, dept)
HOME_NAME	Represents the Oracle home name. The home name can be up to 16 alphanumeric characters. The only special character allowed in the home name is the underscore.	C:\> net start OracleHOME_NAMETNSListener
`ORACLE_HOME` and `ORACLE_BASE`	In releases prior to Oracle8i release 8.1.3, when you installed Oracle components, all subdirectories were located under a top level `ORACLE_HOME` directory that by default used one of the following names: `C:\orant` for Windows NT `C:\orawin98` for Windows 98 This release complies with Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA) guidelines. All subdirectories are not under a top level `ORACLE_HOME` directory. There is a top level directory called `ORACLE_BASE` that by default is `C:\oracle`. If you install the latest Oracle release on a computer with no other Oracle software installed, then the default setting for the first Oracle home directory is `C:\oracle\ora``nn`, where `nn` is the latest release number. The Oracle home directory is located directly under `ORACLE_BASE`. All directory path examples in this guide follow OFA conventions. Refer to Oracle Database Platform Guide for Windows for additional information about OFA compliances and for information about installing Oracle products in non-OFA compliant directories.	Go to the `ORACLE_BASE``\``ORACLE_HOME``\rdbms\admin` directory.

Documentation Accessibility

Our goal is to make Oracle products, services, and supporting documentation accessible, with good usability, to the disabled community. To that end, our documentation includes features that make information available to users of assistive technology. This documentation is available in HTML format, and contains markup to facilitate access by the disabled community. Standards will continue to evolve over time, and Oracle is actively engaged with other market-leading technology vendors to address technical obstacles so that our documentation can be accessible to all of our customers. For additional information, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program Web site at

http://www.oracle.com/accessibility/

Accessibility of Code Examples in Documentation

JAWS, a Windows screen reader, may not always correctly read the code examples in this document. The conventions for writing code require that closing braces should appear on an otherwise empty line; however, JAWS may not always read a line of text that consists solely of a bracket or brace.

Accessibility of Links to External Web Sites in Documentation

This documentation may contain links to Web sites of other companies or organizations that Oracle does not own or control. Oracle neither evaluates nor makes any representations regarding the accessibility of these Web sites.