RE: How do you audit a DBA?

From: Miller, Jay <JayMiller_at_TDWaterhouse.com>
Date: Thu, 06 Sep 2001 07:27:44 -0700
Message-ID: <F001.00385360.20010906073053@fatcity.com>

They were auditing all functions and software in IS.

-----Original Message-----

Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2001 11:51 PM To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

Your company's auditors auditing DBA or ORACLE database ?

-----Original Message-----

Sent: Thursday, 6 September 2001 12:16 AM To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

You mean you think DBAs should do things? My company's auditors were aghast when I told them that I did things such as write Unix scripts to monitor the database. They were firmly of the opinion that DBAs should not be allowed to write code, only developers should write code. That was a major audit violation right there. We eventually finessed the issue (we didn't bring it up again and they forgot about it as they pursued more important things such as trying to convince the company to drop Unix since it wasn't as secure as NT), but for a while I started speaking to headhunters again in case all the things the auditors were insisting on were actually put in place.

-----Original Message-----

Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2001 9:06 AM To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

What is the purpose of having a dba if he is not allowed to do anything?

"Do not criticize someone until you walked a mile in their shoes, that way when you criticize them, you are a mile a way and have their shoes."

Christopher R. Spence
Oracle DBA
Phone: (978) 322-5744
Fax: (707) 885-2275

Fuelspot
73 Princeton Street
North, Chelmsford 01863

-----Original Message-----

Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2001 1:12 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

Dave,

Your question is somewhat puzzling. Anyone with DBA privileges can get to any table they want since the DBA role contains the 'select any table', 'update any table', 'delete any table', and 'insert any table' system privileges. You would not require the sys or system passwords to accomplish that task. Is the person asking the question suspicious of one person or all of the DBA's at your site? At any rate it would be best to audit all activity against the tables in question and then filter the data after the fact. This is somewhat more important since a trigger cannot catch a select, but database auditing can.
Also, if it's a DBA who is questionable he/she would have access to empty out the sys.aud$ table of any activity they created.

Dick Goulet

____________________Reply Separator____________________
Author: Dave Leach <Dave.Leach_at_claybrook.co.uk>
Date:       8/23/2001 7:56 AM

Anyone who can help,

I've been asked if Oracle can somehow audit the DBA ie. Raise an alert if the DBA were to execute DML statements against sensitive tables, this assumes the DBA has the SYS password. I thought this was a pretty reasonable question but couldn't think of an answer. My trail of though was maybe an email alert to a designated member of staff sent via a trigger on the table.

Any comments would be very appreciated.

Dave Leach

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Author: Dave Leach
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Author: Sinardy
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