Re: Database Security

In article <dongwei.15.00141AEE_at_creek.eel.ufl.edu>, dongwei_at_creek.eel.ufl.edu (Yisheng) says:
>
>I would like to discuss with anyone who has experience in Oracle database
>security. Any suggestion is also appreciate. Right now we are facing a very
>important issue in database developement. We use Oracle as our database
>server. In our application code we would like to have different roles enabled
>at different time. To do this we create different roles and grant them to all
>the users. By use: Alter User Default Role None, we disable all the roles from
>all the users and use Set Role command in the application code to enable
>different role at different time. It looks fine at the first look. However, if
>it happen that any of the users can get a chance to have a look of the source
>code, he would be able to grant a role to himself by writing his own
>application code. It is really a big hole in the security of Oracle database.
>We don't want the users to get any information from the application code. But
>it looks like that Oracle can't do anything about it. I would like to hear
>from you about this Security stuff in Oracle.
>
>
> Brant
>
>My E-Mail: dongwei_at_creek.eel.ufl.edu

The application does not actually grant a role if you are using Set Role. What it does is enable a role that has already been granted. Therefore, you should not be concerned about a user finding a Set Role command in an application.

What you are trying is a good way to do things if you want to limit access to your data to those using only approved programs rather than ODBC/Excel types of access. To do it well, however, you should use a password for each role and only let your application "know" what that password is. Of course, if they can get into the source, they can find that out. Encryption of the password within the source would be very appropriate. Better yet, secure your source code from prying eyes.

Jeff Qualls
Delco Electronics Corp.

• All words, thoughts, and opinions are mine alone. **