Sunday, March 31, 2013

Security, Authentication Methods - Part 2

Dear Readers,

My name is Franz Devantier, creator of this blog.  I am an Oracle Certified Professional (OCP DBA 11g) Security DBA.  I will be sharing with you the basic duties of an Oracle DBA, and also some of the undocumented, and not so well known tasks. 

I will make a deal with you:  If you refer me to a company that needs database support, from a few hours per week to full time, and I am able to sign a contract with them.
Then I will give you 10% of the monthly contract or deal price every month.  When the contract ends, and we re-sign the contract, I will again give you 10% of the monthly contract price.  This will go on until the company no longer employs or contracts me or my agents to look after their databases.
I can do this, because that 10% is my marketing budget.  When we re-sign the contract, in the future, it may depend on you giving the thumbs up again, and that is worth 10% of the monthly contract price, to be given to you as commission.
Contact: Franz

Security, Authentication Methods  -  Part 2
Authentication by the Operating System
On some operating systems, Oracle can use information maintained by the operating system, to authenticate users.  There are benefits to this approach:
·         Once a user is authenticated by the operating system, that user can connect to oracle without having to specify a username or password
For example the user would connect to the operating system user account, and then connect to the oracle database like this:
# sqlplus /
·         Because the control over user authentication is centralized in the operating system, Oracle does not need to manage user passwords.  Oracle still needs to maintain the usernames in the database.
·         Audit trails in the database, and in the operating system can use the same user names.
When the operating system is used to authenticate database users, managing distributed database environments and database links requires special care.

Authentication by the Network
Authentication over a network is handled either by the SSL protocol, or by a third-party service.  To use a network authentication service with Oracle, you will need to install the enterprise edition of the Oracle database server with the advanced security option.
·         Authentication using SSL
·         Authentication using third-party services
·         Authentication using Kerberos
·         Authentication that is PKI-based
·         Authentication with RADIUS
·         Using Directory-Based services

Authentication Using SSL
The Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol is an application layer protocol. It can be used for user authentication to a database, and it is independent of global user management in Oracle Internet Directory. Users can use SSL to authenticate to the database even without a directory server in place.

Authentication Using Third-Party Services
Authentication over a network makes use of third-party network authentication services. Prominent examples include Kerberos, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), the Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS), and directory-based services.

If network authentication services are available to you, then Oracle can accept authentication from the network service. If you use a network authentication service, then some special considerations arise for network roles and database links.

Franz Devantier,
Need a database health check, or a security audit?
devantierf@gmail.com

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