CHAPTER
9
Database Security
and Auditing
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278 Oracle Database 11g DBA Handbook
o protect one of the most vital assets to a company??”its data??”you as a DBA must
be keenly aware of how Oracle can protect corporate data and the different tools
you have at your disposal. The Oracle-provided tools and mechanisms fall into
three broad categories: authentication, authorization, and auditing.
Authentication includes methods used to identify who is accessing the database, ensuring that
you are who you say you are, regardless of what resources you are requesting of the database. Even
if you are merely trying to access the daily lunch menu at the cafeteria, it is important that you
identify yourself correctly to the database. If, for example, the web-based database application
presents customized content based on the user account, you want to make sure you get the lunch
menu for your branch office in Houston, Texas, and not the one for the home office in Buffalo,
New York!
Authorization provides access to various objects in the database once you are authenticated
by the database. Some users may be authorized to run a report against the daily sales table, some
users may be developers and therefore need to create tables and reports, whereas others may only
be allowed to see the daily lunch menu. Some users may never log in at all, but their schema
may own a number of tables for a particular application, such as payroll or accounts receivable.
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