When you enable Oracle Database Vault, several Oracle Database security features, such as default user authorizations, are modified to provide stronger security restrictions.
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See Also:
Oracle Database Vault Security Guidelines for guidelines on managing security in the Oracle Database configuration
The Oracle Database Vault configuration modifies several database initialization parameter settings to better secure your database configuration.
If these changes adversely affect your organizational processes or database maintenance procedures, then contact Oracle Support for help in resolving the issue.
Table 2-1 describes the initialization parameter settings that Oracle Database Vault modifies. Initialization parameters are stored in the init.ora initialization parameter file. On UNIX and Linux, this file is located in $ORACLE_HOME/dbs. On Windows, this file is located in $ORACLE_HOME/database. For more information about this file, see Oracle Database Reference.
Table 2-1 Modified Database Initialization Parameter Settings
| Parameter | Default Value in Database | New Value Set by Database Vault | Impact of the Change |
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Enables the auditing of top-level operations directly issued by user For more information about |
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Not configured. |
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Disables the operating system to completely manage the granting and revoking of roles to users. Any previous grants of roles to users using For more information about |
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Controls whether the Flashback Drop feature is turned on or off. If See Also:
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Specifies whether Oracle Database checks for a password file. The For more information about |
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Ensures that if a user has been granted the Be aware that if the user is only granted the For more information about |
The Oracle Database configuration requires two additional administrative database account names.
In addition, several database roles are created. These accounts are part of the separation of duties provided by Oracle Database Vault. One common audit problem that has affected several large organizations is the unauthorized creation of new database accounts by a database administrator within a production instance. Upon installation, Oracle Database Vault prevents anyone other than the Oracle Database Vault account manager or a user granted the Oracle Database Vault account manager role from creating users in the database.
See Also:
Separation of Duty Guidelines for guidelines on managing separation of duty
The Oracle Database Vault configuration implements the concept of separation of duty so that you can meet regulatory, privacy and other compliance requirements.
Oracle Database Vault makes clear separation between the account management responsibility, data security responsibility, and database management responsibility inside the database. This means that the concept of a super-privileged user (for example, DBA) is divided among several new database roles to ensure no one user has full control over both the data and configuration of the system. Oracle Database Vault prevents privileged users (those with the DBA and other privileged roles and system privileges) from accessing designated protected areas of the database called realms. It also introduces new database roles called the Oracle Database Vault Owner (DV_OWNER) and the Oracle Database Vault Account Manager (DV_ACCTMGR). These new database roles separate the data security and the account management from the traditional DBA role. You should map these roles to distinct security professionals within your organization.
See Also:
Separation of Duty Guidelines for advice on managing separation of duty for your site
Oracle Database Vault Roles for detailed information about the roles created during the Oracle Database Vault installation
Oracle Database Vault Accounts Created During Registration for default accounts that are created and for suggestions of additional accounts that you may want to create
Oracle Database Vault Accounts Created During Registration for default accounts that are created and suggestions for additional accounts that you may want to create
Backup Oracle Database Vault Accounts for advice about creating backup accounts for the DV_OWNER and DV_ACCTMGR accounts
The Oracle Database Vault configuration revokes privileges from several Oracle Database-supplied users and roles, for better separation of duty.
Table 2-2 lists privileges that Oracle Database Vault revokes from the Oracle Database-supplied users and roles. Be aware that if you disable Oracle Database Vault, these privileges remain revoked. If your applications depend on these privileges, then grant them to application owner directly.
Table 2-2 Privileges Oracle Database Vault Revokes
| User or Role | Privilege That Is Revoked |
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Footnote 1
To authorize users to export and import data using Oracle Data Pump, see Using Oracle Data Pump with Oracle Database Vault.
Footnote 2
To authorize users to schedule database jobs, see Using Oracle Scheduler with Oracle Database Vault.
Note:
Both the SYS and SYSTEM users retain the SELECT privilege for the DBA_USERS_WITH_DEFPWD data dictionary view, which lists user accounts that use default passwords. If you want other users to have access to this view, grant them the SELECT privilege on it.
The Oracle Database Vault configuration prevents several privileges for all users and roles who have been granted these privileges, including users SYS and SYSTEM.
The DV_ACCTMGR role has these privileges for separation of duty.
ALTER PROFILE
ALTER USER
CREATE PROFILE
CREATE USER
DROP PROFILE
DROP USER
For better security and to maintain separation-of-duty standards, do not enable SYS or SYSTEM users the ability to create or manage user accounts.
When you configure Oracle Database Vault and if you decide not to use unified auditing, then Database Vault configures several AUDIT statements.
See Oracle Database Audit Settings Created for Oracle Database Vault for more information.