Category: 19c

It’s a Wrap: Insights from the SOUG Espresso on Oracle Audit

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 […]

Latest Critical Patch Updates from Oracle – January 2024

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 […]

Easy Audit Data Analysis with SQL Developer Reports

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 […]

Easy setup of Kerberos Authentication for Oracle Databases

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 […]

SQL Toolbox for simplified Oracle Unified Audit Data Analysis

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, […]

How to write Unified Audit Trail Records to SYSLOG 

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 […]

Easy replacement of tnsnames.ora with LDAP Directory Server

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, […]

Free Oracle Unified Directory for Oracle Net Services

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. […]

DOAG Oracle Database Vault

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 […]

Security Best Practice: Oracle passwords, but secure!

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. 😊 […]

Oracle Security EUS Snippets – Setup Proxy User Privileges

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. […]

Oracle Password Filter for AD, a few exciting insights

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 […]

Kerberos Troubleshooting – A few approaches

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 […]

PDB Isolation and Security

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 […]

Oracle Enterprise User Security with multiple ldap.ora

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 […]

Audit Trail cleanup in Oracle Multitenant environments

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 […]

Oracle CPU / PSU Advisory July 2019

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 […]

SQL Developer 19.1 unable to use connection type ldap with OUD

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 […]

PDB_OS_CREDENTIAL with external table pre-processor

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 […]

SOUG Day 2019 – Oracle Database in Docker

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 […]

Configure Oracle EUSM to use LDAPS

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 […]