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S317045
Real-World Deployment and Best Practices with Oracle Audit Vault
Tammy Bednar, Sr. Principal Product Manager, Oracle
Mike McClure , Sr. Database Administrator, Amazon

The following is intended to outline our general

product direction. It is intended for information
purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any
contract. It is not a commitment to deliver any
material, code, or functionality, and should not be
relied upon in making purchasing decisions.
The development, release, and timing of any
features or functionality described for Oracles
products remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.

Program Agenda

Why Audit?
Oracle Audit Vault Reports
Implementing Audit Vault at Amazon
Best Practices
Q&A

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Why Audit?
Its all about protecting sensitive data, maintaining
customer trust, and protecting the business
Trust-but-verify that your employees are only
performing operations required by the business
Detective controls to monitor what is really going on
Reduce the curiosity seekers from looking at data
Compliance demands that privileged users be
monitored
Know what is going on before others tell you

Oracle Audit Vault

Automated Activity Monitoring & Audit Reporting

HR Data

CRM Data

ERP Data

Audit
Data

Databases

Alerts
Built-in
Reports
Custom
Reports
Policies

Auditor

Consolidate audit data into secure repository

Detect and alert on suspicious activities
Out-of-the box compliance reporting
Centralized audit policy management

Audit Vault Reports

Any of the Audit Vault

reports can be
scheduled to run
automatically and
archived in the Audit
Vault repository for
viewing, printing,
emailing, and
attestation

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Oracle Audit Vault

Database Audit Support
RDBMS

Versions

Audit Locations

Oracle Database

Oracle Database 9iR2,

Oracle Database 10g,
Oracle Database 11g

Audit Tables for standard and fine-grained

auditing
Oracle audit trail from OS files written in
XML, text file, or SYSLOG
Before/after values and DDL changes from
redo log
Database Vault specific audit records

Microsoft SQL Server 2000, 2005, 2008

Server side trace set specific audit event

Windows event audit specific events
viewed by windows event viewer
C2 - automatically sets all auditable events

IBM DB2

8.2, 9.1 & 9.5 on Linux,

Unix, Windows

Binary OS files written by the audit facility

Sybase ASE

12.5.4 - 15.0.x

Sybsecurity database tables

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Oracle Audit Vault

Features by Release
Feature

10.2.2

10.2.3

10.2.3.2

Oracle Database Support

SQL Server, IBM DB2 LUW, Sybase ASE
Out-of-the-Box Reports
Open Schema
Alerts
Policy Manager for Oracle
Audit Trail Clean-Up
Compliance reports (PCI, HIPAA, ..)
Entitlement reports (users, privileges..)
Reports (PDF, Customization)
Reports (Scheduling, Attestation, Notification)
Alerts Email and Remedy Integration
ArcSight & Q1 Labs Integration

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Audit Vault at
Amazon

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Michael Mcclure
Database
Administrator

Global Financial
Systems
Amazon.com
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Oracle Audit Vault

Catching the Big Bad Wolf

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To Be, or Not To Be?

That is the Question.

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Why Audit Vault?

Reduce Cost/Increase efficiency related to S-Ox,
HIPPA, PCI/DSS+ and other compliance reporting
Cross Database compatibility
Separation of Duties
More efficient audit policy management
Catch the Big Bad Wolf

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Auditing Challenges
We have lots of different RDBMS systems; They all
audit differently
Policies/mechanisms for auditing are different across
the organization
Dealing with our audit data
Watching the watchers who do you trust?

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Oracle Audit Vault Architecture

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Concerns
1.
2.
3.
4.

Performance / Impact
Resource utilization
Scalability
Fault Tolerance / BCP / DR

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Generation
1.

audit_trail = db*

2.

audit_trail = xml*

3.

redo

Collection
1.
2.
3.

DBAUD Collector Collection

OSAUD Collector
REDO Collector

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Which did we choose?

We liked the OSAUD collector from the XML audit

trail

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A Closer look at XML Audit Trail

Generation and Collection

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Audit Vault Low Impact / Fault Tolerant

Architecture

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AV Server & Dataguard w/FSFO

1) Using the OUI, install the AV Server application on two
different machines using the same SID.
2) Choose one machine to be your primary machine and
validate that AV works by logging into the web app.
3) Turn off Database Vault
4) Force Logging in your primary database
5) Modify init.ora parms and listener.ora for Dataguard and AV
compatibility
6) Other cleanup of standardized AV install
7) Delete the database on your chosen standby server
8) Instantiate a DG standby on your standby server
9) Create and enable FSFO configuration
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Disabling Database Vault

1.Shutdown the database

2.Recompile the oracle executable
with Database Vault off:
cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib
make -f ins_rdbms.mk dv_off
cd $ORACLE_HOME/bin
relink oracle

3. Startup the database

4. Grant the following:
grant create user, alter user to avsys;

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Force logging for Dataguard

1. Force logging at the database level:

SQL> alter database force logging;
2. Force logging for each tablespace:
SQL> select 'alter tablespace '||
tablespace_name || ' force logging;' from
dba_tablespaces where contents =
'PERMANENT';
Cut/paste output into your sqlplus
window.

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Init.ora and listener.ora parms for

DG/AV compatibility
Init.ora
1. dispatchers='(DISPATCHERS=2)(PROTOCOL=TCP)(SERVICE=${ORACLE_SID}XDB)
(LISTENER=(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=<YOUR HOST NAME>)(PORT=1521))))

Listener.ora
1.

LISTENER =
(DESCRIPTION_LIST =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = IPC)(KEY = EXTPROC1))
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = <YOUR HOST NAME>) (PORT = 1521))
)

)
2.

(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = <YOUR HOST NAME> )(PORT = 5707))
(Presentation=HTTP)(Session=RAW)
)

SID_LIST_LISTENER =
(SID_LIST =
(SID_DESC =
(SID_NAME = PLSExtProc)
(ORACLE_HOME = /opt/app/oracle/product/10.2.3.1/avserver)
(PROGRAM = extproc)
)

(SID_DESC =
(SID_NAME = <YOUR DBNAME>)
(ORACLE_HOME = /opt/app/oracle/product/10.2.3.1/avserver)
(global_dbname = <sid>.<domain> )
)

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General database cleanup

1. Move datafiles, controlfile, online redo to better locations
2. Multiplex online redo and controlfiles across controllers
3. Increase the number of redolog groups
4. Appropriately size your SGA for your server
5. Setup log_archive_dest_1 to use something other than the AV install default
6. Setup log_archive_dest_2 to point to your standby database server
7. Setup log_archive_config, db_unique_name, fal_* entries and local_listener to use
your database listeners in preparation for implenting Dataguard.
8. Move the flashback directory from the default of
$ORACLE_BASE/flash_recovery_area to a better location and clean up the
archivelogs backed up via rman to the old flash_recovery_area directory
9. Decide whether or not you want auto-extensible data files
10.Set whatever other init.ora parameters you like at your organization
11.Install backups / crontab / scripts / monitors to your company standard

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Setting up the DG Standby and FSFO

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.

Validate that Audit Vault works on the standby AV Server by logging into the
application and looking around
Shutdown the Audit Vault server application
Delete the database from the standby machine
Bring over the init.ora and listener.ora modifications in Slide #15 to the
standby, but change the machine name to that of the standby server.
Bring over the password file from the primary.
Restore a backup of your AV primary to your standby server and create a
standby controlfile for it.
startup managed recovery
Implement FSFO
Validate that FSFO is working and the AV Web Application is working
Turn Database Vault back on
Troubleshoot in-house scripts that break as a result of Database Vault being
turned back on

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Other Dataguard / FSFO

Considerations
1. If you use an XML audit trail, you may want to move
your audit directories to faster files systems
2. If you use a DB audit trail, youll want to move your
aud$ and fga_log$ tables to a non-system tablespace.
3. If you customize your sqlnet.ora
NAMES.DEFAULT_DOMAIN, youre going to have to
manually modify every entry in the Audit Vault
tnsnames.ora to include the value. Youll also have to
modify the tns configuration on the collector machines
(whether they be source db servers or collector
machines similar to slide #12).

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Definitions and Context

Source The database you are getting your audit data from.
Regardless of how many nodes there are in your dataguard config,
there is only 1 source.
Agent Tied to a single server, an Agent connects to the Audit Vault
Server to insert the audit trail data into the database. It manages the
collectors.
Collector The RDBMS specific process that knows how to get audit
data from the source database. There are collectors that talk to Oracle,
MS Sql, DB2, and Sybase. Multiple collectors can use the same agent to
deposit all audit data into the same Audit Vault repository.
A collector is tied to a source; it collects from that source.
In an Audit Vault, the combination of Source and Collector is unique.

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Setting up remote XML collection

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Get local collection working on the source database server following the Audit Vault
documentation.
Using avca on the AV Server, add a new agent mapped to the primary collector server(s).
Run the OUI to install the Audit Vault Agent software on each primary remote collector
providing the new agent created in Step #2 to the installation dialog.
Using avorcldb on the AV Server, add a new source using the flip-tolerant host name.
Using avorcldb on the AV Server, add new collectors for the source created in #4 tied to the
agents created in #3.
Using avorcldb on the remote collector server, run setup to create the wallet and tnsnames
entries for passwordless connection from the primary remote collector to the source db.
Modify the source db tnsnames.ora entry created in #7 to change the source db entry from
the flip-tolerant host name to the node specific host name.
If audit_trail = xml*, create identical audit trail directories on the remote collector.
If doing XML generation, sync the audit trail directories created in Step #6 between the
source db server and the remote collector, and create job to sync them regularly.
Stop the collectors created in Step #1, and startup the newly modified collector and validate
that it is collecting the syncd files.

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New Agent Mapping

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Source Collector Map

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Conclusion

In a world of compliance auditing, life can be easy or it

can be hard
Audit data is just as important as production data and
should be treated as such
In some ways, the stakes are higher: If we mess up,
market cap plummets, companies fail and people go to
jail.
How Big a Gambler are YOU?
Oracle Audit Vault with Dataguard/FSFO and remote
collection is a high performance, low impact, highly
available solution that makes compliance reporting easy.

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Best Practices

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What Do You Need To Audit?

Database
Audit Requirements

SOX

PCI
DSS

HIPAA/
HITECH

Basel II

FISMA

GLBA

Accounts, Roles & GRANT changes

Failed Logins and other Exceptions

Privileged User Activity

Access to Sensitive Data (SELECTs)

Data Changes (INSERT, UPDATE, )

Schema Changes (DROP, ALTER)

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Native Auditing
Performance Guidelines
Original workload CPU 50% for 250 audit
records/sec
Audit Trail
Setting

Additional
Throughput Time

Additional CPU Usage

OS

1.39%

1.75%

XML

1.70%

3.51%

XML, Extended

3.70%

5.36%

DB

4.57%

8.77%

DB, Extended

14.09%

15.79%

*Internal testing: Source: 4x 3.40 GHz Intel Xeons , 4 GB RAM, x86_64 Linux Oracle Database 11.2.0.1

Oracle Confidential

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Use Automatic Audit Trail Clean-Up

Automatically deletes audit trails from target after they
are securely inserted into Audit Vault
Reduces DBA manageability challenges with audit trails

Database
1) Transfer audit trail data

3) Delete older
audit records

Oracle Confidential

2) Update last inserted record

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Oracle Database Security

Defense-in-Depth
Encryption and Masking
Oracle Advanced Security
Oracle Secure Backup
Oracle Data Masking

Access Control
Oracle Database Vault
Oracle Label Security

Auditing and Tracking

Oracle Audit Vault
Oracle Configuration Management
Oracle Total Recall

Blocking and Monitoring

Oracle Database Firewall

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More Oracle Database Security Presentations

Monday:
12:30 pm: Making a Business Case for Information Security
MS 300
3:30 pm: Oracle Database 11g Release 2 Security: Defense-in-Depth

MS 103

Tuesday:

12:30 pm: Real-World Deployment and Best Practices : Oracle Audit Vault
MS 306
2:00 pm: Real-World Deployment and Best Practices : Oracle Advanced Security
2:00 pm: Best Practices for Ensuring the Highest Enterprise Database Security
3:30 pm: Database Security Event Management : Oracle Audit Vault and ArcSight
5:00 pm: Real-World Deployment and Best Practices :Oracle Database Vault
MS 303

MS 300
MS 304
MS 300

Wednesday:
10:00 am: Protect Data and Save Money: Aberdeen
MS 306
11:30 am: Preventing Database Attacks With Oracle Database Firewall
MS 306
4:45 pm: Centralized Key Management and Performance :Oracle Advanced Security

MS 306

Thursday:
10:30 am: Deploying Oracle Database 11g Securely on Oracle Solaris

MS 104

MS = Moscone South
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Oracle Database Security Hands-on-Labs

Monday:
Database Vault 11:00AM | Marriott Marquis, Salon 10 / 11
Database Vault 5:00PM | Marriott Marquis, Salon 10 / 11

Check Availability
Check Availability

Tuesday:
Database Security 11:00AM | Marriott Marquis, Salon 10 / 11

Check Availability

Thursday
Advanced Security 12:00PM | Marriott Marquis, Salon 10 / 11
Audit Vault 1:30PM | Marriott Marquis, Salon 10 / 11

Check Availability
Check Availability

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Oracle Database Security Demo Grounds

Moscone West

Oracle Database Firewall

Oracle Database Vault
Oracle Label Security
Oracle Audit Vault
Oracle Advanced Security
Oracle Database 11g Release2 Security
Exhibition Hours
Monday, September 20

9:45 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Tuesday, September 21

9:45 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Wednesday, September 22

9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

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Oracle OpenWorld

Latin America 2010

December 79, 2010

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Oracle OpenWorld

Beijing 2010
December 1316, 2010

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Oracle Products Available Online

Oracle Store
Buy Oracle license and support
online today at
oracle.com/store

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