Author Archives: Stefan Oehrli

Use of DEFAULT_CLEANUP_INTERVAL

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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 DEFAULT_CLEANUP_INTERVAL of DBMS_AUDIT_MGMT.INIT_CLEANUP procedure [1243324.1]

Quote Oracle Support (MOS Note 1243324.1):

The dbms_audit_mgmt.init_cleanup parameter DEFAULT_CLEANUP_INTERVAL is not intended to be used to control the frequency of execution of audit management automatic cleanup. This parameter, although assigned a value during initialisation of audit infrastructure, is unused in current releases. However, in future releases it is intended to be used to control functionality which automatically partitions audit tables based on their archive frequency. This functionality already exists in the DBMS_AUDIT_MGMT package but is disabled in current releases. This is not a classified product bug, but expected behaviour.

According to the MOS Note DBMS_AUDIT_MGMT.CLEAN_AUDIT_TRAIL Not Clearing FGA Audit Trail When Using Last Archive Timestamp [1532676.1] it could be a no go for audit purging if DEFAULT_CLEANUP_INTERVAL has not or never been. Conclusion initialize the audit trail and define a value for the default cleanup interval but manualy setup a purge job.

I’m curious what Oracle plans for the future. Unified and self purging audit trail :-)

Reference

A few Metalink Notes related to Audit and Audit Management.

  • Master Note For Oracle Database Auditing
  • Known Issues When Using: DBMS_AUDIT_MGMT
  • How to Truncate, Delete, or Purge Rows from the Audit Trail Table AUD$
  • DBMS_AUDIT_MGMT.CLEAN_AUDIT_TRAIL Not Clearing FGA Audit Trail When Using Last Archive Timestamp
  • Parameter DEFAULT_CLEANUP_INTERVAL of DBMS_AUDIT_MGMT.INIT_CLEANUP procedure

DOAG 2013 Datenbank

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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 features. The features will explained by several practical examples.

  • Data Redaction
  • Unified Database Auditing
  • Role and Privilege Analysis

More Information on the Event is available on the DOAG website.

Due to the fact that this presentation contains preliminary information, the slides will not be available for download yet. But I will make the download link available once the dust settles on the latest Generation of Database Technology…

DOAG SIG Security

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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 link available once the dust settles on the latest Generation of Database Technology…

so stay tuned.

SOUG Special Intrest Group Baden March 21st

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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 is to provide a range of information on new security features as they could be released in with latest generation of Oracle Database. It covers the following possible new features.

  • Data Redaction
  • Unified Datenbank Auditing
  • Role and Privilege Analysis
  • Improved Database Vault
  • Database Application Security Architecture
  • Improved Key Management
  • New OS Roles

Have a look at the SOUG Webpage for a detailed Agenda of the Event and the location. Looking forward to see you there.

Due to the fact that this presentation contains preliminary information, the slides will not be available for download. It is a must to personally attend the SIG SOUG :-) If you do not have time to participate at the SOUG event, you have a second chance later this year. I’ve planned a similar presentation for the DOAG Event in Düsseldorf. More on that later.

Oracle released CPU / PSU January 2013

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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 quite some critical security fixes with a CVSS Rating of 10. On the other hand there’s just one security fix for regular oracle database servers. This security fix relates merely to the SPATIAL option. For a variety of Oracle database server, which do not use the spatial option, this CPU is not so critical. It’s probably worth waiting for the CPU april 2013.

CPU Release Dates

The next four Critical Patch Updates will be released at the following dates:

  • 16 April 2013
  • 16 July 2013
  • 15 October 2013
  • 14 January 2014

References

Links all around Critical Patch Update:

New Oracle Audit Vault and Database Firewall

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In the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, it went under that Oracle had released a new version of Oracle Audit Vault respectively Oracle Audit Vault and Database Firewall. This weekend I found some time to take a first look into the new release.

What’s New

About a year ago Oracle released the Audit Vault Server 10.3. (see New release of Oracle Audit Vault). During this update Oracle mainly moved internally to a 11.2.0.3 database. The architecture has remained more or less the same. But this has changed now. Oracle is trying to complete its security portfolio. Therefore Oracle has merged the two Oracle Audit Vault and Oracle Database Firewall into the new Oracle Audit Vault and Database Firewall. From the security officer point of view it is definitely more interesting to only have one platform. On the other hand a software appliance is one of the favorites of the DBA and Unix admins. What about, updates, HA, backup & recovery etc? I’ll try to consider these thoughts in a later post on installing and configuring the new Oracle Audit Vault and Database Firewall.

Some short notes on the new features:

  • Oracle Audit Vault and Database Firewall is released as a software appliance-based platform
  • Internally Oracle does use Oracle 11.2.0.3 including Advance Security and Database Vault to enforce Database security and segregation of duties
  • One simple setup does install and configure the operating system, software, database, web frontend etc
  • Audit Vault Agents for:
  • Oracle Database 10g
  • Oracle Database 11g
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2000
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2005
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2008
  • Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) versions 12.5.4 to 15.0.x
  • IBM DB2 version 9.x (Linux, UNIX, Microsoft Windows)
  • Solaris operating system
  • Oracle ACFS
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2008
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2
  • Microsoft Active Directory 2008
  • Microsoft Active Directory 2008 R2 on 64 bit

New Architecture

As initially mentioned Audit Vault and Database Firewall are moving closer. Oracle Audit Vault is now also the data storage and analysis platform for the Oracle Database Firewall. Former Database Firewall Management Server is eliminated and thus is replaced with Oracle Audit Vault.

OverviewAVDF

An important note here is that Oracle Audit Vault can not be installed on different platforms as before. It is rather a software appliance like the Oracle Database Firewall. The license for each Oracle Audit Vault and Oracle Database Firewall includes always a license for Oracle Enterprise Linux as well. To install only the appropriate hardware is required. This can be a virtual or a physical host. To setup my test environment, I’ve use as usual virtual servers.

Oracle AVDF Requirements

To install Oracle AVDF the following minimal Hardware Requirements must be met. See as the online installation guide for more details on the installation requirements in particular for the supported secured target products (agents).

  • x86 64-bit Server
  • 2 GB Ram
  • single hard drive 125 GB
  • 1 NIC for Audit Vault Server
  • 1 NIC for Database Firewall Proxy Mode
  • 2 NICs for Database Firewall DAM Mode (monitoring)
  • 3 NICs for Database Firewall DPE Mode (blocking)

In addition to the hardware the following software is required to begin the installation:

  • Oracle Linux Release 5 Update 8 for x86_64 (64 Bit) V31120-01 (3.7GB)
  • Oracle Audit Vault and Database Firewall (12.1.0.0.0) – Server V35715-01 (3.4GB)
  • Oracle Audit Vault and Database Firewall (12.1.0.0.0) – Database Firewall V35716-01 (3.1GB)

The server can not be used for other activities, setup of either Oracle Audit Vault or Oracle Database Firewall will completely reimage the server. But I’ll post more details on the installation later this month.

Resources

Links all around the new Oracle Audit Vault and Database Firewall…

Oracle CPU / PSU Pre-Release Announcement January 2013

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Today Oracle has published the Pre-Release Announcement for the first CPU Patch in 2013. This Critical Patch Update contains 86 new security vulnerability fixes for several Oracle products. From the Oracle database point of view it is quite a small update. There is only one security fix for the Oracle Database Server and no for client-only installations.

Although the CVSS rating of this vulnerability is 9.0, it looks that there is no hurry to install this security fix on most of the database environments. This is because only the spatial is affected. If this is true, we’ll see next Tuesday when Oracle is officially releasing CPU / PSU January 2013. Next week I’ll have a closer look.

More details about the patch will follow soon on the Oracle Security Pages.