6 Oracle Label Security Using Oracle Internet Directory

6.1 Introducing Label Management on Oracle Internet Directory

Previous releases of Oracle Label Security have relied on the Oracle Database as the central repository for policy and user label authorizations. This architecture leveraged the scalability and high availability of the Oracle Database, but did not leverage the identity management infrastructure, which includes the Oracle Internet Directory. This directory is part of Oracle Identity Management Platform. Integrating your installation of Oracle Label Security with Oracle Internet Directory allows label authorizations to be part of your standard provisioning process.

These advantages accrue also to directory-stored information about policies, user labels, and privileges that Oracle Label Security assigns to users. These labels and privileges are specific to the installation's policies defining access control on tables and schemas.If a site is not using Oracle Internet Directory, then such information is stored locally in the database.

The following Oracle Label Security information is stored in the directory:

• Policy information, namely policy name, column name, policy enforcement options, and audit options

• User profiles identifying their labels and privileges

• Policy label components: levels, compartments, groups

• Policy data labels

Database-specific metadata is not stored in the directory. Examples include

• Lists of schemas or tables, with associated policy information, and

• Program units, with associated policy privileges

The following three notes identify important aspects of integrating your installation of Oracle Label Security with Oracle Internet Directory:

For sites that use Oracle Internet Directory, databases retrieve Oracle Label Security policy information from the directory. Administrators use the olsadmintool policy administration tool or the Enterprise Manager graphical user interface to operate directly on the directory to insert, alter, or remove metadata as needed. Because enterprise users can log in to multiple databases using the credentials stored in Oracle Internet Directory, it is logical to store their Oracle Label Security policy authorizations and privileges there as well. An administrator can then modify these authorizations and privileges by updating such metadata in the directory.

For distributed databases, centralized policy management removes the need for replicating policies, because the appropriate policy information is available in the directory. Changes are effective without further effort, synchronized with policy information in the databases by means of the Directory Integration Platform.

Figure 6-1, "Diagram of Oracle Label Security Metadata Storage in Oracle Internet Directory" illustrates the structure of metadata storage in Oracle Internet Directory.

Figure 6-2, "Oracle Label Security Policies Applied through Oracle Internet Directory" illustrates applying different policies stored in Oracle Internet Directory to the databases accessed by different enterprise users. Determining the policy to be applied is controlled by the directory entries corresponding to the user and the accessed database.

Figure 6-1 Diagram of Oracle Label Security Metadata Storage in Oracle Internet Directory

Description of "Figure 6-1 Diagram of Oracle Label Security Metadata Storage in Oracle Internet Directory"

Figure 6-2 Oracle Label Security Policies Applied through Oracle Internet Directory

Description of "Figure 6-2 Oracle Label Security Policies Applied through Oracle Internet Directory"

In this example, the directory has information about two Oracle Label Security policies, Alpha, applying to database DB1, and Beta, applying to database DB2 Although both policies are known to each database, only the appropriate one is applied in each case. In addition, enterprise users who are to access rows protected by Oracle Label Security are listed in profiles within the Oracle Label Security attributes in Oracle Internet Directory.

As Figure 6-2, "Oracle Label Security Policies Applied through Oracle Internet Directory" shows, the connections between different databases and the directory are established over either SSL or SASL. The database always binds to the directory as a known identity using password-based authentication. Links between databases and their clients (such as a sqlplus session, any PL/SQL programs , and so on) can use either SSL or non-SSL connections. The example of Figure 6-2, "Oracle Label Security Policies Applied through Oracle Internet Directory" assumes that users are logged on through password authentication. The choice of connection type depends on the enterprise user model.

The Oracle Label Security policy administration tool operates directly on metadata in Oracle Internet Directory. Changes in the directory are then propagated to the Oracle Directory Integration and Provisioning server, which is configured to send changes to the databases at specific time intervals.

The databases update the policy information in Oracle Internet Directory only when policies are being applied to tables or schemas. These updates ensure that policies that are in use will not be dropped from the directory.

6.2 Configuring Oracle Internet Directory-Enabled Label Security

You can configure a database for Oracle Internet Directory-enabled Label Security at any time after database creation or during custom database creation. Oracle Internet Directory-enabled label security relies on the Entrerprise User security feature.

6.3 Removing Directory-enabled Oracle Label Security from Database

To remove Oracle Internet Directory-enabled Oracle Label Security from a database, first unregister the database using DBCA, and then run the following script:

$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/catnools.sql

6.4 Oracle Label Security Profiles

A user profile is a set of user authorizations and privileges. Profiles are maintained as part of each Oracle Label Security policy stored in the Directory.

If a user is added to a profile, then the authorizations and privileges defined in that profile for that particular policy are aquired by the user, which include the following attributes:

• Five label authorizations:

  • maximum read label

  • maximum write label

  • minimum write label

  • default read label

  • default row label

• Privileges

• The list of enterprise users to whom these authorizations apply

  See Also:

  • Oracle Label Security Policy Attributes in Oracle Internet Directory

  • "Getting Started with Enterprise User Security" in the Oracle Database Enterprise User Security Administrator's Guide for more infomation on creating and managing enterprise users

  • Oracle Enterprise Manager help for information on creating and administering Oracle Label Security profiles and policies

An enterprise user can belong to only one profile, or none.

6.5 Integrated Capabilities When Label Security Uses the Directory

The integration of Oracle Label Security and Oracle Internet Directory enables the following capabilities:

• User/administrator actions

  • Storing multiple Oracle Label Security policies in Oracle Internet Directory

  • Managing Oracle Label Security policies and options in the directory, including

    • creating or dropping a policy

    • changing policy options

    • changing audit settings

  • Creating label components for any Oracle Label Security policies by

    • creating or removing levels, compartments, or groups

    • assigning numeric values to levels, compartments, or groups

    • changing long names of levels, compartments, or groups

    • creating children groups

  • Managing enterprise users configured as users of any Oracle Label Security policies, including

    • assigning or removing enterprise users to/from profiles within policies

    • assigning policy-specific privileges to enterprise users, or removing them

    • changing policy label authorizations assigned to enterprise users

  • Managing all user/administrator actions and capabilities by means of an integrated set of command line tools that monitor and manage Oracle Label Security policies in Oracle Internet Directory.

• Automatic results of Oracle Label Security

  • Limiting database policy usage to directory-defined policies only (no local policies defined or applied)

  • Synchronizing changes to policies in the directory with the databases using Oracle Label Security (to apply after enterprise users reconnect)

  • After changes are propagated by the Directory Integration Platform, having immediate access to enterprise users' Oracle Label Security attributes when these users log on to any database using Oracle Label Security, assuming they are configured within any Oracle Label Security policies. These attributes include users' label authorizations and users' privileges.

6.6 Oracle Label Security Policy Attributes in Oracle Internet Directory

In Oracle Internet Directory, Oracle-related metadata is stored under cn=OracleContext. Within Label Security, each policy holds the information and parameters shown in Figure 6-1, "Diagram of Oracle Label Security Metadata Storage in Oracle Internet Directory":

When Oracle Label Security is used without Oracle Internet Directory, it supports automatic creation of data labels by means of a label function. However, when Oracle Label Security is used with Oracle Internet Directory, such functions can create labels only using data labels that are already defined in the directory.

6.7 Restrictions on New Data Label Creation

When Oracle Label Security is used with Oracle Internet Directory, data labels must be pre-defined in the directory.

They cannot be created dynamically by a label function, as is possible when label security is not integrated with the directory.

6.8 Two Types of Administrators

Administrators listed within a policy are those individuals authorized to do the following policy-specific administrative tasks:

• Modify existing policy options and audit settings.

• Enable or disable auditing for a policy.

• Create or remove levels, compartments, groups or children groups.

• Modify full/long names for levels, compartment, or groups.

• Define or modify enterprise user settings, in this policy, for:

  • Privileges

  • Maximum or minimum levels

  • Read, write, or row access for levels, compartments, or groups

  • Label profiles

• Remove enterprise users from a policy.

There is a higher level of administrators, called policy creators, who can create and remove Oracle Label Security policies and the policy administrators named within them.

6.9 Bootstrapping Databases

After a new database is registered with Oracle Internet Directory, the administrator can install Oracle Internet Directory enabled Oracle Label Security on that database. This installation process automatically creates a Directory Integration Platform (DIP) provisioning profile enabling policy information to be periodically refreshed in the future by downloading it to the database. Refer to Oracle Directory Integration and Provisioning (DIP) Provisioning Profiles.

When configuring the database for Oracle Internet Directory enabled Oracle Label Security, the DBCA tool puts all the policy information in Oracle Internet Directory into the database. At any point, the administrator can decide to bootstrap the database with the policy information again, using the bootstrap utility script at $ORACLE_HOME/bin/olsoidsync. The parameters it requires are as follows:

olsoidsync --dbconnectstring <"database connect string in host:port:sid format">
--dbuser <database user> --dbuserpassword <database user password> [-c] [-r]
[-b <admin context>] -h <OID host> [-p <port>] -D <bind DN> -w <bind password>

For example, 

olsoidsync --dbconnectstring yippee:1521:ora101 --dbuser lbacsys
--dbuserpassword lbacsys -c
-b "ou=Americas,o=Oracle,c=US" -h yippee -D cn=policycreator -w Easy2rem

The olsoidsync command pulls policy information from Oracle Internet Directory and populates the information in the database. Users must provide the database TNS name, the database user name, the database user's password, the administrative context (if any), the Oracle Internet Directory host name, the bind DN and bind password, and optionally the Oracle Internet Directory port number.

The optional -c switch causes the command to drop all the existing policies in the database and refresh it with policy information from Oracle Internet Directory.

The optional -r switch causes the command to drop all the policy metadata (without dropping the policies themselves) and refresh the policies with new metadata from Oracle Internet Directory.

Without these two switches, the command will only create new policies from Oracle Internet Directory, and will halt on any errors encountered during the refresh.

6.10 Synchronizing the Database and Oracle Internet Directory

Oracle Label Security metadata in the directory is synchronized with the databases using the Oracle Directory Provisioning Integration Service of the Directory Integration Platform.

Changes to the label security data in the directory are conveyed by the provisioning integration service in the form of provisioning events. A software agent receives these events and generates appropriate SQL or PL/SQL statements to update the database. After these statements are processed, Oracle Label Security data dictionaries are updated to match the changes already made in the directory.

Oracle Label Security subscribes itself to the Provisioning Integration Service automatically during installation. The provisioning service stores the information associated with each database in the form of a provisioning profile. The software agent uses the identity of the user "DIP" to connect to the database, and the password "DIP", when synchronizing the changes in Oracle Internet Directory with the database.

If the password for the user DIP is changed, that information must be updated in the provisioning profile of the provisioning integration service.

The steps to change the database connection information in the DIP profile are as follows:

1. Disable the provisioning profile. This temporarily stops the propagation of label security changes in the directory to the database, but no data is lost. Once the profile is enabled, any label security changes that happened in the directory since the profile was disabled are synchronized with the database.

2. Update the database connection information in the profile.

3. Enable the profile.

   Note:

   The database character set must be compatible with Oracle Internet Directory for Oracle Internet Directory-enabled Oracle Label Security to work correctly. Only then can there be successful synchronization of the Label Security metadata in Oracle Internet Directory with the Database.

   Please refer to Chapters 2 and 3 of Oracle Database Globalization Support Guide for more information about Character sets and Globalization Support parameters.

   See Also:

   • Disabling, Changing, and Enabling a Provisioning Profile

   • Oracle Internet Directory Administrator's Guide for more information about enabling and disabling of provisioning profiles

oidprovtool operation=modify ldap_host=yippee ldap_port=389
ldap_user=cn=defense_admin ldap_user_password=Easy2rem
application_dn="cn=db1,cn=OracleContext,ou=Americas,o=Oracle,c=US"
organization_dn="ou=Americas,o=Oracle,c=US" interface_name=LBACSYS.OLS_DIP_NTFY
interface_type=PLSQL interface_connect_info=yippee:1521:db1:dip:newdip schedule=60
event_subscription= "ENTRY:cn=LabelSecurity,cn=Products,cn=OracleContext,
ou=Americas,o=Oracle,c=US:ADD(*)" event_subscription=
"ENTRY:cn=LabelSecurity,cn=Products, cn=OracleContext,ou=Americas,
o=Oracle,c=US:MODIFY(*)" event_subscription="ENTRY:cn=LabelSecurity,cn=Products,
cn=OracleContext, ou=Americas,o=Oracle,c=US:DELETE"

oidctl server=odisrv connect=db2 config=0 instance=0 start

oidprovtool operation=disable ldap_host=< > ldap_port=< > ldap_user_dn=< >  
   ldap_user_password=< > application_dn=< >  organization_dn=< >

oidprovtool operation=disable ldap_host=yippee ldap_port=389

ldap_user=cn=defense_admin ldap_user_password=Easy2rem 
application_dn="cn=db1,cn=OracleContext,ou=Americas,o=Oracle,c=US"
organization_dn="ou=Americas,o=Oracle,c=US"

oidprovtool operation=modify  ldap_host=< > ldap_port=< >

ldap_user_dn=< >  ldap_user_password=< > application_dn=< >
organization_dn=< >   interface_connect_info=< new_connect _info >

oidprovtool operation=modify ldap_host=yippee ldap_port=389

ldap_user=cn=defense_admin ldap_user_password=Easy2rem
application_dn="cn=db1,cn=OracleContext,ou=Americas,o=Oracle,c=US" 
organization_dn="ou=Americas,o=Oracle,c=US" 
interface_connect_info=yippee:1521:db1:dip:NewestDIPpassword 

oidprovtool operation=enable  ldap_host=< > ldap_port=< >  ldap_user_dn=< >  

ldap_user_password=< > application_dn=< >   organization_dn=< >

oidprovtool operation=enable ldap_host=yippee ldap_port=389 

ldap_user=cn=defense_admin ldap_user_password=Easy2rem 
application_dn="cn=db1,cn=OracleContext,ou=Americas,o=Oracle,c=US" 
organization_dn="ou=Americas,o=Oracle,c=US"

6.11 Security Roles and Permitted Actions

To manage Oracle Label Security policies in Oracle Internet Directory, certain entities are given access control rights in the directory. The access control mechanisms are provided by Oracle Internet Directory.

Table 6-3 describes, in abstract terms, these entities and the tasks they are enabled to perform.

Table 6-4, "Access Levels Allowed by Users in OID", lists the specific access level operations permitted or disallowed for policy creators, policy administrators, and label security users.

^Footnote 1 The group cn=OracleContextAdmins is the owner of the group cn=PolicyCreators, so members in cn=OracleContextAdmins can modify cn=PolicyCreators.

^Footnote 2 The group cn=OracleDBCreators is the owner of the group cn=DBServers, so members in cn=OracleDBCreators can modify cn=DBServers.

6.12 Superseded PL/SQL Statements

When Oracle Internet Directory is enabled with Oracle Label Security, the procedures listed in the following table are superseded. Only LBACSYS is allowed to run these procedures.

For some of the procedures listed in the table, the functionality they provided is replaced by the olsadmintool command named in the second column (and explained in Appendix E, "Reference").

6.13 Procedures for Policy Administrators Only

The following procedures are allowed to be run only by policy administrators (enterprise users defined in Oracle Internet Directory):

• SA_POLICY_ADMIN.APPLY_SCHEMA_POLICY

• SA_POLICY_ADMIN.APPLY_TABLE_POLICY

• SA_POLICY_ADMIN.DISABLE_SCHEMA_POLICY

• SA_POLICY_ADMIN.DISABLE_TABLE_POLICY

• SA_POLICY_ADMIN.ENABLE_SCHEMA_POLICY

• SA_POLICY_ADMIN.ENABLE_TABLE_POLICY

• SA_POLICY_ADMIN.GRANT_PROG_PRIVS

• SA_POLICY_ADMIN.POLICY_SUBSCRIBE

• SA_POLICY_ADMIN.POLICY_UNSUBSCRIBE

• SA_POLICY_ADMIN.REMOVE_SCHEMA_POLICY

• SA_POLICY_ADMIN.REMOVE_TABLE_POLICY

• SA_POLICY_ADMIN.SET_PROG_PRIVS

• SA_POLICY_ADMIN.REVOKE_PROG_PRIVS