Oracle Security Blog

A database link is a one-way connection between two databases.  Starting with Oracle version 11.2.0.3, database session information now reports additional information for those sessions involving database links.  As often database links are created between databases of different security profiles; it is important to log session activity that includes the details of the database link.

DBLINK_INFO returns the source of a database link.  Specifically, it returns a string of the form –

SOURCE_GLOBAL_NAME=dblink_src_global_name

Knowing which person, not just which database account, has been a challenge for database logging and auditing when working with enterprise software applications such as the Oracle E-Business Suite, SAP, PeopleSoft, and OBIEE.  Knowing which application user did what and when is now much easier because of adoption of standard Oracle functionality.

Just when you thought the Oracle Database world was getting safer, Oracle will be releasing fixes for 32 database security bugs on Tuesday, October 14th.  This is in stark contrast to the previous twenty-five quarters where the high was 16 database bugs and average per quarter was 8.2 database bugs.  For the previous two years, the most database bugs fixed in a single quarter was six.

In addition to the 32 database security bugs, there are a total of 155 security bugs fixed in 44 different products.

Oracle 12c introduces several major new security features. Data redaction is one new feature and Real Application Security (RAS) is another.  Per Oracle, RAS is the next generation Virtual Private Database (VPD) and is installed with Oracle Enterprise Edition – no additional license required. RAS is a new declarative and granular authorization model and is designed to be an application security platform for end-to-end application security. For those developing APEX applications (also installed with Enterprise Edition), RAS will certainly become an integral tool.

UTL_FILE_DIR is the database initialization parameter the Oracle Database uses to determine what operating system directories and files PL/SQL packages, functions, and procedures may read from or write to when using the standard UTL_FILE database package.  The directories specified in the UTL_FILE_DIR parameter may be accessed by any database user, which can be a security issue.  In Oracle 9iR2, Oracle released new functionality called “Directories” that provides a more secure and robust capability to access operating system directories and files.  The advantages of using Di

In our blog post on 16-May, we provided guidance on Java JAR signing for the E-Business Suite. We are continuing our research on E-Business Suite Java JAR signing and will be presenting it in a forthcoming educational webinar. Until then we would like to share a few items of importance based on recent client conversations -

Maintaining a secure Oracle E-Business Suite implementation requires constant vigilance. For the desktop clients accessing Oracle E-Business Suite, Integrigy recommends running the latest version of Java 7 SE.  Java 7 is fully supported by Oracle with Public Updates through April 2015 and is patched with the latest security fixes. Most likely in late 2014 we anticipate that Oracle will have released and certified Java 8 with the Oracle E-Business Suite.

Clients often contact Integrigy requesting assistance to protect their sensitive data. Frequently these are requests for assistance to locate and then encrypt sensitive data. While encryption  offers protection for sensitive data, it by no means solves all security problems. How to protect sensitive data (and how to verify the trust of privileged users such as database administrators with sensitive data) requires more than just encryption.

Integrigy has received a lot of great feedback about our Framework for logging and auditing the Oracle E-Business Suite.

Kerberos authentication support in the Oracle Database is now included with all editions of the Oracle Database.  Previously, Kerberos authentication required an Oracle Advanced Security Option license.  Since this licensing change, we have been working with our clients to design and implement database user authentication using Kerberos and Active Directory.  This allows for authentication and verification of database users using Active Directory without implementing other identify management products or servers.  Although, it does require both server and client-side co

My wake-up call one day last week came from an acquaintance. Somebody at his company typed the APPS password in wrong too many times and locked the APPS database account. This caused the Oracle E-Business Suite to lock-out ALL users from accessing the application and concurrent processing to stop. Since it was production, excitement ensued. By the time he had called me, the APPS password had been reset and the Oracle E-Business Suite was back up. The question was what do to prevent it from occurring in the future?

For those of you who attended our webinar on 15-May-2014 on how to secure privileged users, Bruce Schneier’s blog post on 5/16/2014 will be of interest. The post was titled “How to Stop an Insider from Stealing All Your Secrets”. In the post he referenced a magazine article by Bob Toxen in the Communications of the ACM.

Until recently the Oracle E-Business Suite allowed self-designed certificates to assure the validity of Java code run within end-users’ browsers. This meant that the Java JAR files downloaded from the middle tier server were tested by the end-user’s browser for validity using a certificate created by you and/or you organization during installation. Use of a Trusted Certificate Authority (CA) issued certificate, while always an option for enhanced security, is now a requirement. Oracle has recently deemed self-signed certificates as no longer being secure.

Last week I had to build an Oracle 11gR2 database in the lab. Usually this process involves selecting one of several VirtualBox VM images for an appropriate Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL) build and then several hours of effort. I selected a basic OEL6 image then instead decided to try out Oracle’s preinstall RPM package for Oracle database installations. I had heard about these packages that automate several of the more tedious pre-installation tasks such as modifying kernel parameters and installing and resolving required software packages.

The RPMs respectively are named:

There are two primary options for sharing authentication solutions with the Oracle E-Business Suite. The Oracle E-Business Suite and OBIEE both can take advantage of Oracle’s Single Sign-On (SSO) solutions. If SSO is used, both OBIEE and the E-Business Suite would be subscribing applications.

The other option is for OBIEE to use the Oracle E-Business Suite for authentication. This solution requires that users first log into the E-Business Suite and from there exercise (click-on) a menu function to bring them into OBIEE without having to type a user name or password.