Oracle Database Vault is an optional security feature for Oracle Database that provides additional security controls to restrict access to sensitive data by enforcing a separation-of-duty principle. It works by protecting against privileged users, such as database administrators, who may be able to access or manipulate sensitive data for malicious purposes.
Here are the key features of Oracle Database Vault and how they help secure sensitive data:
1. Realms: Oracle Database Vault allows administrators to define realms, which are sets of database objects that are protected by a specific security policy. This feature makes it possible to enforce fine-grained access controls for different types of data based on its sensitivity. For example, a realm could be created to protect sensitive financial data, such as credit card numbers or account balances, and only designated users would be given access to that realm.
2. Command rules: Oracle Database Vault provides command rules, which allow administrators to regulate the types of SQL commands that can be executed on a specific set of database objects. This feature allows database administrators to prevent malicious commands from being executed on sensitive data. For example, a command rule could be created to prevent a user from executing DELETE statements on a sensitive table.
3. Factors: Factors is a feature of Oracle Database Vault that permits the integration of authentication and authorization of database users with enterprise-level systems. Factors can integrate with Directory Authentication System or other third-party authentication systems, such as Active Directory, and it can be used to customize the interaction of the database with authenticated and authorized clients. It can be used to enforce restrictions on them regarding the data they are allowed to view or modify within the database.
4. Privilege analysis: With privilege analysis, Oracle Database Vault allows administrators to identify unused privileges that could be revoked or to identify conflicting privileges that could be leveraged to obtain unauthorized access to sensitive data. This feature helps ensure that only the necessary access is granted to users and that they are not given more privileges than they need to do their job.
Overall, Oracle Database Vault is a powerful security feature that can be used to secure sensitive data by providing fine-grained access controls based on the security policies defined by administrators. By enforcing separation of duties and limiting access to sensitive data, Oracle Database Vault helps to reduce the risk of malicious activity and unauthorized access to sensitive data.