Re: A few security questions

I will tackle a couple of these.

remote_os_authent: in most cases this should be set to false. I've never worked in an environment where setting it to true would be a good thing.

If you set it to true in a out of the box Oracle installation, it makes it very easy for someone else to logon as SYSDBA. I've done it a few times from my laptop here at work for demonstration purposes.

os_authent_prefix: The value preferred by most folks is an empty string - eg. ''

If you are using SAP, it should be set to "OPS$" - any other value is very confusing to SAP consultants. ;)

This value is used for external authentication.

User Profiles: It is usually a good idea to create profiles that reference a password verification routine, one that enforces (to the extent possible)a strong password.

I also assign one to the default profile to ensure that an account cannot be created without a good password.

Probably the best availailable book on Oracle Security is this one: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0974372749

You might considering getting a copy.

Jared Received on Tue Sep 27 2005 - 19:20:46 CDT