Oracle 11g - Creating and Maintaining a Password File

Oracle® Database Administrator's Guide
11g Release 2 (11.2)
Part Number E10595-04

 

Creating a Password File with ORAPWD

The syntax of the ORAPWD command is as follows:

ORAPWD FILE=filename [ENTRIES=numusers] [FORCE={Y|N}] [IGNORECASE={Y|N}]

Command arguments are summarized in the following table.

Argument	Description
FILE	Name to assign to the password file. You must supply a complete path. If you supply only a file name, the file is written to the current directory.
ENTRIES	(Optional) Maximum number of entries (user accounts) to permit in the file.
FORCE	(Optional) If y, permits overwriting an existing password file.
IGNORECASE	(Optional) If y, passwords are treated as case-insensitive.

There are no spaces permitted around the equal-to (=) character.

The command prompts for the SYS password and stores the password in the created password file.

Example

The following command creates a password file named orapworcl that allows up to 30 privileged users with different passwords.

orapwd FILE=orapworcl ENTRIES=30

ORAPWD Command Line Argument Descriptions

The following sections describe the ORAPWD command line arguments.

FILE

This argument sets the name of the password file being created. You must specify the full path name for the file. The contents of this file are encrypted, and the file cannot be read directly. This argument is mandatory.

The file name required for the password file is operating system specific. Some operating systems require the password file to adhere to a specific format and be located in a specific directory. Other operating systems allow the use of environment variables to specify the name and location of the password file.

Table 1-1 lists the required name and location for the password file on the UNIX, Linux, and Windows platforms. For other platforms, consult your platform-specific documentation.

Table 1-1 Required Password File Name and Location on UNIX, Linux, and Windows

Platform	Required Name	Required Location)
UNIX and Linux	orapwORACLE_SID	ORACLE_HOME/dbs
Windows	PWDORACLE_SID.ora	ORACLE_HOME\database

For example, for a database instance with the SID orcldw, the password file must be named orapworcldw on Linux and PWDorcldw.ora on Windows.

In an Oracle Real Application Clusters environment on a platform that requires an environment variable to be set to the path of the password file, the environment variable for each instance must point to the same password file.

Caution:

It is critically important to the security of your system that you protect your password file and the environment variables that identify the location of the password file. Any user with access to these could potentially compromise the security of the connection.

ENTRIES

This argument specifies the number of entries that you require the password file to accept. This number corresponds to the number of distinct users allowed to connect to the database as SYSDBA or SYSOPER. The actual number of allowable entries can be higher than the number of users, because the ORAPWD utility continues to assign password entries until an operating system block is filled. For example, if your operating system block size is 512 bytes, it holds four password entries. The number of password entries allocated is always a multiple of four.

Entries can be reused as users are added to and removed from the password file. If you intend to specify REMOTE_LOGIN_PASSWORDFILE=EXCLUSIVE, and to allow the granting of SYSDBA and SYSOPER privileges to users, this argument is required.

Caution:

When you exceed the allocated number of password entries, you must create a new password file. To avoid this necessity, allocate a number of entries that is larger than you think you will ever need.

FORCE

This argument, if set to Y, enables you to overwrite an existing password file. An error is returned if a password file of the same name already exists and this argument is omitted or set to N.

IGNORECASE

If this argument is set to y, passwords are case-insensitive. That is, case is ignored when comparing the password that the user supplies during login with the password in the password file.

See Also:

Oracle Database Security Guide for more information about case-sensitivity in passwords.

Sharing and Disabling the Password File

You use the initialization parameter REMOTE_LOGIN_PASSWORDFILE to control whether or not a password file is shared among multiple Oracle Database instances. You can also use this parameter to disable password file authentication. The values recognized for REMOTE_LOGIN_PASSWORDFILE are:

• NONE: Setting this parameter to NONE causes Oracle Database to behave as if the password file does not exist. That is, no privileged connections are allowed over nonsecure connections.

• EXCLUSIVE: (The default) An EXCLUSIVE password file can be used with only one instance of one database. Only an EXCLUSIVE file can be modified. Using an EXCLUSIVE password file enables you to add, modify, and delete users. It also enables you to change the SYS password with the ALTER USER command.

• SHARED: A SHARED password file can be used by multiple databases running on the same server, or multiple instances of an Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) database. A SHARED password file cannot be modified. This means that you cannot add users to a SHARED password file. Any attempt to do so or to change the password of SYS or other users with the SYSDBA or SYSOPER privileges generates an error. All users needing SYSDBA or SYSOPER system privileges must be added to the password file when REMOTE_LOGIN_PASSWORDFILE is set to EXCLUSIVE. After all users are added, you can change REMOTE_LOGIN_PASSWORDFILE to SHARED, and then share the file.

  This option is useful if you are administering multiple databases or a RAC database.

If REMOTE_LOGIN_PASSWORDFILE is set to EXCLUSIVE or SHARED and the password file is missing, this is equivalent to setting REMOTE_LOGIN_PASSWORDFILE to NONE.

Note:

You cannot change the password for SYS if REMOTE_LOGIN_PASSWORDFILE is set to SHARED. An error message is issued if you attempt to do so.

Keeping Administrator Passwords Synchronized with the Data Dictionary

If you change the REMOTE_LOGIN_PASSWORDFILE initialization parameter from NONE to EXCLUSIVE or SHARED, or if you recreate the password file with a different SYS password, then you must ensure that the passwords in the data dictionary and password file for the SYS user are the same.

To synchronize the SYS passwords, use the ALTER USER statement to change the SYS password. The ALTER USER statement updates and synchronizes both the dictionary and password file passwords.

To synchronize the passwords for non-SYS users who log in using the SYSDBA or SYSOPER privilege, you must revoke and then regrant the privilege to the user, as follows:

1. Find all users who have been granted the SYSDBA privilege.

   SELECT USERNAME FROM V$PWFILE_USERS WHERE USERNAME != 'SYS' AND SYSDBA='TRUE';
   

2. Revoke and then re-grant the SYSDBA privilege to these users.

   REVOKE SYSDBA FROM non-SYS-user;
   GRANT SYSDBA TO non-SYS-user;
   

3. Find all users who have been granted the SYSOPER privilege.

   SELECT USERNAME FROM V$PWFILE_USERS WHERE USERNAME != 'SYS' AND SYSOPER='TRUE';
   

4. Revoke and regrant the SYSOPER privilege to these users.

   REVOKE SYSOPER FROM non-SYS-user;
   GRANT SYSOPER TO non-SYS-user;
   

Adding Users to a Password File

When you grant SYSDBA or SYSOPER privileges to a user, that user's name and privilege information are added to the password file. If the server does not have an EXCLUSIVE password file (that is, if the initialization parameter REMOTE_LOGIN_PASSWORDFILE is NONE or SHARED, or the password file is missing), Oracle Database issues an error if you attempt to grant these privileges.

A user's name remains in the password file only as long as that user has at least one of these two privileges. If you revoke both of these privileges, Oracle Database removes the user from the password file.