Authentication and Password Security - Implementing Database Security and Auditing - page 102

Table 4.1 Contents of V$SESSION_CONNECT_INFO Matching the Logon Information in V$SESSION

AUTHENTICATION
_TYPE

SID OSUSER NETWORK_SERVICE_BANNER

138 DATABASE RON-SNYHR85G9DJ\ronb

Oracle Advanced Security: NTS authen-
tication service adapter for 32-bit Win-
dows: Version 2.0.0.0.0

138 DATABASE RON-SNYHR85G9DJ\ronb

Oracle Advanced Security: encryption
service for 32-bit Windows: Version
10.1.0.2.0 - Production

138 DATABASE RON-SNYHR85G9DJ\ronb

Oracle Advanced Security: crypto-check-
summing service for 32-bit Windows:
Version 10.1.0.2.0 - Production

It turns out that on Windows, Oracle also suggests that you use operating
system authentication as a best practice. When using operating system
authentication, Oracle has several parameters you can use to fine-tune the
authentication process. These are initially set up in , but you can init.ora

look at the values by selecting from or by signing on to

V$PARAMETER

SQL*Plus and running . This lists all of the current param-

eters. The following four parameters (with the default values in a 10g instal-
lation) are relevant in the context of using operating system authentication:

SHOW PARAMETERS

remote_os_authent boolean FALSE
remote_os_roles boolean FALSE
os_authent_prefix string OPS$
os_roles boolean FALSE

The first parameter— —is equivalent to the

remote_os_authent CLIENT

authentication for DB2, and you should always set it to FALSE. If set to
true, it means that the server trusts that the client has authenticated the
user on the remote operating system and does not require further authenti-
cation. In the same spirit, ,

because this parameter allows a client authenticated remotely to enable
operating system roles. The

should be set to remote_os_roles FALSE

controls the mapping
between operating system users on the server to database users. Users who
have already been authenticated by the server's operating system can sign
onto Oracle without entering a password. The question is how the user-
names in both systems are related. This parameter is appended as a prefix
to the username used by the operating system and is useful in situations
where you may have the same usernames in the database as in the operat-

os_authent_prefix