Pete Finnigan's Oracle security weblog

Oracle Forensics - Can we Understand what Happened?

Tue, 06 Oct 2026 14:17:54 +0000

In forensics the evidence can be grouped into two blocks. The first is changes made to the database and the second is read activity. Usually an attackers goal is to steal data (read) but he may need to do changes....[Read More]

Posted by Pete On 06/10/26 At 02:16 PM

Generate a PL/SQL Encryption and Decryption Package, Again

Tue, 06 Oct 2026 14:17:54 +0000

First, I am appending this text here before I post this blog live as I realised its almost exactly 22 years since I started this blog in September 2004; so happy birthday to my blog!! Now to the actual subject....[Read More]

Posted by Pete On 28/09/26 At 08:36 AM

Extreme PL/SQL - Creating a simple programming language interpreter in PL/SQL

Tue, 06 Oct 2026 14:17:54 +0000

Last week I posted a blog - Extreme PL/SQL - Running an Assembly Language Program in PL/SQL where I presented the fact that I have written a virtual machine on PL/SQL and also an assembler in PL/SQL and showed how....[Read More]

Posted by Pete On 23/09/26 At 07:52 AM

Extreme PL/SQL - Running an Assembly Language Program in PL/SQL

Tue, 06 Oct 2026 14:17:54 +0000

Back in 2022 I started work on an idea that I could build an interpreter for a simple language in PL/SQL and then building on that create a Virtual Machine in PL/SQL and an assembler in PL/SQL for the assembly....[Read More]

Posted by Pete On 16/09/26 At 08:54 AM

Oracle Security AnythingLLM Tools

Tue, 06 Oct 2026 14:17:54 +0000

As you will have noticed in my blogs I have been using and playing with AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) for a while now but with a focus on Oracle Security still. I want to understand the capabilities of....[Read More]

Posted by Pete On 10/09/26 At 10:35 AM

Perform a Security Audit of an Old Oracle Database

Tue, 06 Oct 2026 14:17:54 +0000

We support doing security audits of all of the current Oracle databases from 19c to 21c and 26ai. We also support doing security audits on databases in your own data center or in the cloud. No matter where the database....[Read More]

Posted by Pete On 09/09/26 At 12:33 PM

Can Synonyms Point to Synonyms?

Tue, 06 Oct 2026 14:17:54 +0000

I got asked a question via a DM on one of my social media channels a few days ago and thought it worth an investigation. They asked me; Can an Oracle synonym point to another synonym, ad infinitum. Let me....[Read More]

Posted by Pete On 07/09/26 At 08:08 AM

Contexts are Database Level Objects in Oracle

Tue, 06 Oct 2026 14:17:54 +0000

I was asked by someone recently why their context values had disappeared. They had two database users that created the same context. Yes, I know you cannot do that but there was a subtle reason that the code did not....[Read More]

Posted by Pete On 02/09/26 At 09:30 AM