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A. General Security Controls within Oracle
Objective:
To ensure general security controls are adequate and are functioning
as intended within the operating system and the RDBMS.
Risk:
Unsecured information assets may result in the fraud, corruption or
misuse of corporate information assets.
NOTE:
THE SCOPE OF THIS REVIEW DOES NOT INCLUDE A
REVIEW OF APPLICATION LEVEL ORACLE SECURITY.
Standard Control
Testwork to Verify Control
Control
Present
Description if
Applicable
Password Controls
1. Every account must have a
password.
Obtain the Data Dictionary for
the database and verify all
accounts have a password and
they are encrypted.
2. Passwords must always be
encrypted. (A shadow
password file should be
used if the system supports
it or a third party
application should be
utilized.)
Obtain the Data Dictionary for
the database and verify all
accounts have a password and
they are encrypted.
3. Passwords should be
minimum of 6 characters
for end-users and 8
characters for system
administration accounts.
4. Passwords should contain at
least one alphabetic and one
non-alphabetic character.
5. The maximum password
life should be set at 90 days
for users and 60 days for
system administration
accounts.
6. Passwords must not be
reused.

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7. A unique initial password
must be assigned to all new
accounts and all users must
change their passwords
immediately when using a
new account for the first
time.
8. All vendor supplied default
passwords must be changed
or deactivated immediately
upon installation.
Observe the DBA signing in as
the default password of Oracle
as Oracle, Sys as
Change_On_Install, and
System as MANAGER. Verify
the sign-ins are denied.
9. A password checker
program such as “crack”
must be run periodically, at
least weekly.
Discuss the controls over
passwords with the DBA.
General Controls in the
RDBMS
1. The responsibilities of the
Database Administrator
should include the
following: installing and
maintaining the Oracle
software, problem solving
for Oracle users, liaison
with Oracle Corporation,
monitoring and tuning
database performance,
guaranteeing data integrity
and consistency, reducing
unnecessary or redundant
storage, facilitating sharing
of data among users,
administering database
security, performing regular
database back-ups,
performing data recovery
when necessary, creating
database structures and
objects, and assisting in the
design of efficient
applications.
Obtain a copy of the DBA’s job
description and verify the
appropriate tasks are included.

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2. Oracle environments should
have a separation of
responsibilities between
systems administrators,
network administrators,
DBAs, security officers,
operators, developers and
other users.
Through discussions with the
DBA, verify the responsibilities
are separated between those
functions. Note: It is
acceptable for the application
administrator to act as the
system administrator if the
database is used by only one
application.
3. The auditing function in the
database should be turned
on upon installation.
Review the INIT.ORA to
determine if AUDIT_TRAIL
has been set to TRUE.
4. The system auditing should
be used to audit some of the
following information:
connect, resource, DBA,
and not exists.
Obtain the
DBA_SYS_AUDIT_OPTS
Data Dictionary view from the
DBA and determine if the level
of auditing that is turned on is
appropriate.
5. Object auditing should be
used to audit tables and
views. Specific functions
which should be audited
include alter, insert, audit,
lock, comment, rename,
delete, select, grant, update,
index, and all.
Obtain the
DBA_TAB_AUDIT_OPS Data
Dictionary view from the DBA
and determine if the level of
auditing that is turned on is
adequate.
6. The audit trail should be
reviewed on a regular basis.
Discuss with the DBA the
process for reviewing the audit
trail (DBA_AUDIT_TRAIL)
and determine the adequacy of
events being logged.
7. The audit trail table in the
Data Dictionary
(SYS.AUD$) should be
purged on a regular basis.
Discuss with the DBA the
schedule for purging the audit
trail table. Determine its
adequacy.
Change Control in RDBMS
8. Appropriate change controls
should exist over the
database and objects
including approval;
unit/user acceptance testing,
separate test environment,
and adequate parameters set
in the INIT.ORA file.
Discuss with the DBA the
change control process and
verify adequate controls are
present including approval, test,
and appropriate version control.
Controls within Oracle Tools
9. Access to
Obtain/ review the

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PRODUCT_USER_PROFI
LE should be owned by the
DBA and all other Oracle
users should be limited to
Select, as it is owned by the
DBA username SYSTEM.
Product_User_Profile and
verify that it is owned by the
DBA. Verify that all other
Oracle user access is limited to
SELECT.
10. The use of SQL*DBA Tool
should be limited to only
authorized DBAs.
Obtain a file access listing from
the DBA for the Unix
Operating System and verify
access to the SQL*DBA Tool is
limited to the DBA.
11. The authorized operating
system user profiles that
have access to the Oracle
SQL tool or Oracle
Application files should be
limited and used only for
installation or upgrades.
Review list of user profiles and
verify that they are for staff in
the Oracle support group.
12. The SQL*FORMS have a
default for column security
of “off”. This should be
turned to “on” upon
installation.
Review parameter settings for
SQL Forms. Verify that
column security is set to “on”.
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