Raj,
My first question will be how you
would want to pass the encrypted password. sqlplus
<username>/<encyptedpass>? But won't the encrypted password be
known before making the connection? If so, then the user who will encrypt the
password will also know how to decrypt them. What's the advantage in doing
that?
Are you concerned someone sniffing the network
uncovers a clear password? If so, have you considered network security with
password encryption by Oracle Net?
If that is not the concern but rather you don't
want the users to know the real password, here is a solution you might be
interested. It's part of a elaborate application security design. Please read
on if you are interested.
You would have user called SECUSER with only
table APP_USERS. The table has two columns - APP_USER and APP_PASS, in
encrypted manner, with Triple DES Encryption. The user also has one function -
check_app_password, which accepts two parameters - the userid and the password
and returns a string. The return value is YES is the password supplied is
correct and NO, if it isn't. It does not shw the correct password, ever; just
shows if the supplied password is correct or not. This function is defined as
DEFINER rights. All users get an execute privilege on this function, nothing
else on the rest of the objects of the SECUSER user.
Inside the function, the password is retrieved
from the table, decrypted with the key inside the procedure and matched with
the supplied one. Another function is provided to encrypt the password using
teh same key. For more ecurity, the userid and password combination can
encrypted, not just the password. If you want I can give you the code for the
functions.
When the app user connects, the connection is
done through a generic id, that, after the conenction, validates the password
using the function and authenticates the user. If the password is not correct,
the user is booted out.
Now comes other issues - fine grained access
control and fine grained auditing. These features need to have a sepcific
named database user. However, that can be easily fixed by setting up an
application context and passing the app_user value to a context attribute.
This attribute can now be tracked, rather than the userid.
Hope this helps.
Arup Nanda
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2003 9:19
AM
Subject: Passwords and
authentication
Is it possible to connect to database
using encrypted passwords? Using sqlplus?
Thanks
Raj
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Rajendra dot Jamadagni at nospamespn dot
com
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