Pete Finnigan's Oracle Security Forum - Oracle Security is GOOD enough?

Forum

Home/Forum

Welcome, Guest. Please Login. Apr 26^th, 2024, 7:32am News: Welcome to Pete Finnigan's Oracle security forum
Home \| Help \| Search \| Members \| Login

   Pete Finnigan's Oracle Security Forum
   Oracle Security
   Oracle Security (Moderator: Pete Finnigan)
   Oracle Security is GOOD enough?

« Previous topic | Next topic »

Pages: 1

Reply | Notify of replies | Send Topic | Print

Author

Topic: Oracle Security is GOOD enough? (Read 4650 times)

Pete Finnigan
PeteFinnigan.com Administrator

Oracle Security is easier if you design for it

View Profile | WWW | Email

Gender: male

Posts: 309

Oracle Security is GOOD enough?
« on: Jul 7^th, 2008, 7:14am »

Quote | Modify

Hi All,

please share your point of view about Oracle security at this moment.

In my opinion, I see less Oracle Security vulnerabilites in the newer Oracle version and less persons researching about Oracle Security (because Oracle is good now).

Oracle security getting better by time so no need to care about Oracle Security anymore, it's right ?

Regards.

IP Logged

Pete Finnigan (email:pete@petefinnigan.com)
Oracle Security Web site: http://www.petefinnigan.com
Forum: http://www.petefinnigan.com/forum/yabb/YaBB.cgi
Oracle security blog: http://www.petefinnigan.com/weblog/entries/index.html

Pete Finnigan
PeteFinnigan.com Administrator

Oracle Security is easier if you design for it

View Profile | WWW | Email

Gender: male

Posts: 309

Re: Oracle Security is GOOD enough?
« Reply #1 on: Jul 7^th, 2008, 9:35am »

Quote | Modify

Hi vpv,

You have to ask yourself: why do security leaks occur in Oracle databases:
- Because of passwords (on privileged accounts) that lack complexity and which are never changed.
- Because an application with SQL injection leaks connects to the database with an over-privileged account.
- Because the DBA thought it kinda easier to grant every object privilege to PUBLIC.
- Because the database runs an old version that is never updated (nor CPUs are applied), because you should never change a running system.
- etc. etc.
- or: because Oracle has a vulnerability in the dbms_obscurity package that allows to shutdown the database in certain occasions on certain platforms.

I'm betting that most organisations suffer more from problems like the first four (many variations exist). So Oracle isn't per definition secure after applying the latest patch. A lot depends on work done by the DBA and developers.

Try Project Lockdown (http://www.oracle.com/technology/pub/articles/project_lockdown/index.htm l) for a better start towards Oracle security.

IP Logged

Pete Finnigan
PeteFinnigan.com Administrator

Oracle Security is easier if you design for it

View Profile | WWW | Email

Gender: male

Posts: 309

Re: Oracle Security is GOOD enough?
« Reply #2 on: Jul 8^th, 2008, 4:56am »

Quote | Modify

Hi Marcel-Jan,

Agree with you that most vulnerabilities listed existing in the Production Database.

We can clasify the Oracle vuls by two type:
1. Oracle Software vuls: weak PL/SQL packages ... (Update lastest patch can solved this; less vuls in Oracle 10.2.0.3 and 11g, and will be near zero in the next release, hope this

)

2. Misusing of Oracle Database: weak password, configurations, coding. (GOOD DBA or Developer can solved this partly, not all)

But in my expierience, Customer who using Oracle product just pay attention in Oracle Security when they see more vulnerabilites in Oracle Software, seem they really not care much about Misusing of Oracle Database.

One thing that cause me thinking that Oracle is GOOD enough at this time and future is not see more public vulns or frequently posted news in David, Alex or Pete blog during several months.

Regards.

IP Logged

Pete Finnigan
PeteFinnigan.com Administrator

Oracle Security is easier if you design for it

View Profile | WWW | Email

Gender: male

Posts: 309

Re: Oracle Security is GOOD enough?
« Reply #3 on: Jul 12^th, 2008, 7:47pm »

Quote | Modify

Hi Vpv and Marcel-Jan,

Nice post and answer by Marcel-Jan; I think that there are two answers to this point vpv. The first is that the database software itself is getting better with later versions in regards to vulnerabilities etc. Thats fine and is commendable for Oracle.

The second issue for me is that the CPU application doesnt fix security. In my opinion the CPU/Security patch and therefore bugs actually in the software is a smaller part of the overall security of the database, maybe 20% - 30% and at the end of the day we can either patch or not. If someone finds a bug there are enough vendors now in the Oracle security space that many people will know how to exploit the issues so applying CPU's is important.

The other 70% of security and in my experience where most people / customers of Oracle fall down is around the configuration, data leakage, weak passwords, no network security at the Oracle level, excessive privileges.... and much much more. This is compounded by the fact that most people do default installs and install too much increasing the attack surface.

I dont know if there is one root cause but the issue for me is lack of understanding of database security or often lack of effort at all in this area, so most people have badly configured and managed databases.

So whilst you are right and I agree the software is getting better its also getting bigger and open by default and most do not do anything to close off the configuration so the state of most databases is not secure at all.

Its a complex subject and you certainly cannot ignore Oracle security based on better product/less vulns or lack of blog posts.

I think the upsurge in a large number of vendors in this space such as Sentrigo hedgehog shows that there is a major interest in securing data. regulatory issues such as PCI DSS 1.1, SoX, HIPPA and more also underscore this.

I give clues in my sparce blog posts as to why I dont make many, i.e. I am employed heavily in securing databases, I know Alex is the same and I suspect David as well. I think the lack of blog posts doesnt signify better security; it just means we are busy..

nice post though and good comments

cheers

Pete

IP Logged

Pages: 1

Reply | Notify of replies | Send Topic | Print


« Previous topic \| Next topic »

PFCLScan
Simply connect PFCLScan to your Oracle database and it will automatically discover the security issues that could make your Oracle database vulnerable to attack and to the potential loss of your data.

Learn more
PFCLObfuscate
PFCLObfuscate is the only tool available that can automatically add license controls to your PL/SQL code. PFCLObfuscate protects your Intellectual Property invested in your PL/SQL database code.

Learn more
PFCLCode
PFCLCode is a tool to allow you to analyse your PL/SQL code for many different types of security issues. PFCLCode gives you a detailed review and reports and includes a powerful colour syntax highlighting code editor

Learn more
PFCLForensics
PFCLForensics is the only tool available to allow you to do a detailed live response of a breached Oracle database and to then go on and do a detailed forensic analysis of the data gathered.

Learn more
PFCLReselling
PeteFinnigan.com Limited has partnered with a small number of relevant companies to resell their products where they enhance or compliment what we do

Learn more
PFCLATK
PFCLATK is a toolkit that allows detailed pre-defined policy driven audit trails for your Oracle database. The toolkit also provides for a centralised audit trail and centralised activity reporting

Learn more
PFCLCookie
PFCLCookie is a useful tool to use to audit your websites for tracking cookies. Scan websites in a natural way using powerful browser driven scanner

Learn more
PFCLTraining
PFCLTraining is a set of expert training classes for you, aimed at teaching how to audit your own Oracle database, design audit trails, secure code in PL/SQL and secure and lock down your Oracle database.

Learn more
PFCLServices
Choose PFCLServices to add PeteFinnigan.com Ltd to your team for your Oracle Security needs. We are experts in performing detailed security audits, data security design work and policy creation

Learn more
PFCLConsulting
Choose PFCLConsulting to ask PeteFinnigan.com Limited to set up and use our products on your behalf

Learn more
PFCLCustom
All of our software products can be customised at a number of levels. Choose this to see how our products can be part of your products and services

Learn more
PFCLCloud
Private cloud, public cloud, hybrid cloud or no cloud. Learn how all of our services, trainings and products will work in the cloud

Learn more
PFCLUserRights
PFCLUserRights allows you to create a very detailed view of database users rights. The focus of the reports is to allow you to decide what privileges and accounts to keep and which to remove.

Learn more
PFCLSTK
PFCLSTK is a toolkit application that allows you to provide database security easily to an existing database. PFCLSTK is a policy driven toolkit of PL/SQL that creates your security

Learn more
PFCLSFTK
PFCLSFTK is a toolkit that solves the problem of securing third party applications written in PL/SQL. It does this by creating a thin layer between the application and database and this traps SQL Injection attempts. This is a static firewall.

Learn more
PFCLSEO
PFCLSEO is a web scanner based on the PFCLScan technology so that a user can easily scan a website for technical SEO issues

Learn more