Re: Anyone have a copy of DUL ??

Bernard of Oracle Holland made DUL (Direct UnLoader) several years ago. I took the very last internals class conducted by Oracle Support EMEA Vice President Andre Bakker (the only VP to conduct internals classes, I think. I also think he quit Support in disgust some time later :-) ), and we talked about a severe case we had in Denmark at that time.

Basically, a company that made technical specs (including drawings) for some very advanced, high-speed transportation things, had not taken a backup of their system tablespace for 18 months. Then the system01.dbf file did its own thing, and their database didn't really feel good.

Andre told me that he had a guy who was working on a tool that might be able to help us out. But it was in beta, etc., etc.

So I went back to Denmark, called Bernhard, and we agreed that he would fix the bugs as we encountered them.

I sent one of my guys - Christian Fabricius - online, and he was gone for three days, but got all the technical drawings out of the datafiles (Bernhard had to fix two or three things as we went along - a tribute to his coding skills). All that time, practially, Bernhard was online. Rock'n'roll.

We were very proud. First time in history. Blah blah blah. When my manager went to a meeting with the customer a week later we were all expecting joy and happiness and perhaps some gratefullness from the customer.

But no. He was furious. Why hadn't we told him that it was neccessary to take a backup of the system tablespace? Where in the documentation did it clearly state that that was required? It was all our fault.

And we didn't even charge them more than normal hourly rates.

I never tried the other suggestion Andre had (and which he had used many times himself): Create a dummy database that has the same datafiles as the problem database. Then take the file headers from the dummy database and patch on top of the real database. Then you can start up, since the information in the file headers match.

Andre was one cool guy. He's enjoying early retirement, he claims.

Mogens

Rachel Carmichael wrote:

>Kevin Loney tells the story of making a call to the data center from
>the CIO's office and asking them to make a copy of the backup tapes and
>leave them at reception. since the call came from the CIO's office,
>they made the copy
>
>
>--- Pete Finnigan <oracle_list_at_peterfinnigan.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>
>>Hi Peter
>>
>>Glad to hear that there are controls in Oracle for use of DUL, I was
>>thinking of a case where i heard that one guy rang up the backup
>>storage
>>company for a large company and requested a set of backup tapes be
>>left
>>at reception at the company and he just walked in off the street and
>>took them. Mitnik tells similar stories in his book.
>>
>>Thanks for the internal Oracle insight Peter,
>>
>>kind regards
>>
>>Pete
>>
>>In article <F001.005D0650.20030918100953_at_fatcity.com>, Peter Gram
>><peter.gram_at_miracleas.dk> writes
>>
>>
>>>Hi Pete
>>>
>>>I have used Dul many times at customer sites when I was employed by
>>>Oracle Denmark.
>>>
>>>Every time the customer management had to verify by phone and fax
>>>
>>>
>>that
>>
>>
>>>they understood
>>>the full impact of using Dul.
>>>
>>>Oracle have disclaimer that explains the problems with missing
>>>transaction consistency of the
>>>data saved by Dul and the security issues.
>>>
>>>The customer has to sign and fax the disclaimer back to Oracle
>>>
>>>
>>before we
>>
>>
>>>came on site .-)
>>>
>>>After I left Oracle several people ask me if would write a Dul and I
>>>
>>>
>>>declined.
>>>
>>>I'm of the opinion that Dul should stay behind the Oracle firewall.
>>>
>>>/peter
>>>
>>>
>>>Pete Finnigan wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>Hi Mark
>>>>
>>>>I agree with you Mark, even if its supplied by Oracle technicians -
>>>>
>>>>
>>it
>>
>>
>>>>is as you say possible to by-pass security completely. Does anyone
>>>>
>>>>
>>in
>>
>>
>>>>Oracle check that the field support personnel dispatched to a site
>>>>
>>>>
>>( in
>>
>>
>>>>urgency ) are dumping data for the owner of it? -
>>>>
>>>>I covered the issue of DUL with regards to security is the SANS
>>>>
>>>>
>>Oracle
>>
>>
>>>>security step-by-step book - action 6.5.1
>>>>
>>>>kind regards
>>>>
>>>>Pete
>>>>
>>>>In article <F001.005D0632.20030918083501_at_fatcity.com>, Mark Leith
>>>><mark_at_cool-tools.co.uk> writes
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>One problem I see with giving this away "free" is that you will be
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>supplying
>>
>>
>>>>>a tool that allows you to extract data from the database,
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>bypassing all
>>
>>
>>>>>inbuilt security. A BIG "no no". I suppose that also applies to
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>this kind of
>>
>>
>>>>>tool even under a paid license structure.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>--
>>Pete Finnigan
>>email:pete_at_petefinnigan.com
>>Web site: http://www.petefinnigan.com - Oracle security audit
>>specialists
>>Book:Oracle security step-by-step Guide - see http://store.sans.org
>>for details.
>>
>>--
>>Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
>>--
>>Author: Pete Finnigan
>> INET: oracle_list_at_peterfinnigan.demon.co.uk
>>
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>
>
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-- 
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Author: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Mogens_N=F8rgaard?=
  INET: mln_at_miracleas.dk

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