IAM users can connect to the database instance by using either an IAM database password verifier or an IAM token.

Using the IAM database password verifier is similar to the database password authentication process. However, instead of the password verifier (encrypted hash of the password) being stored in the database, the verifier is instead stored as part of the OCI IAM user profile.

The second connection method, the use of an IAM token for the database, is more modern. The use of token-based access is a better fit for Cloud resources such as Oracle Databases in the Exadata Cloud Infrastructure. The token is based on the strength that the IAM endpoint can enforce. This can be multi-factor authentication, which is stronger than the use of passwords alone. Another benefit of using tokens is that the password verifier (which is considered sensitive) is never stored or available in memory.

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure IAM integration with Oracle Exadata Database Service on Dedicated Infrastructure supports the following:

• Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Identity and Access Management (IAM) Database Password Verifier Authentication
• Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Identity and Access Management (IAM) SSO Token Based Authentication

For complete details about the architecture for using IAM users on Oracle Exadata Database Service on Dedicated Infrastructure, see Authenticating and Authorizing IAM Users for Oracle DBaaS Databases in the Oracle Database 19c Security Guide and Oracle Database 23ai Security Guide.

You can enable an Oracle Database instance to allow user access with an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure IAM database password (using a password verifier).

An Oracle Cloud Infrastructure IAM database password allows an IAM user to log in to an Oracle Database instance as Oracle Database users typically log in with a username and password. The user enters their IAM username and IAM database password. An IAM database password is a different password than the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Console password. Using an IAM user with a password verifier, you can log in to Oracle Database with any supported database client.

For password verifier database access, you create the mappings for IAM users and OCI applications to the Oracle Database instance. The IAM user accounts themselves are managed in IAM. The user accounts and user groups can be in either the default domain or in a custom, non-default domain.

For more information about managing IAM database password, see Managing User Credentials.

For IAM token access to the database, the client application or tool requests a database token from IAM for the IAM user.

The client application will pass the database token directly to the database client through the database client API.

If the application or tool has not been updated to request an IAM token, then the IAM user can use OCI CLI to request and store the database token. You can request a database access token (db-token) using the following credentials:

• Security tokens (with IAM authentication), delegation tokens (in the OCI cloud shell) and API-keys, which are credentials that represent the IAM user to enable the authentication
• Instance principal tokens, which enable instances to be authorized actors (or principals) to perform actions on OCI resources after authentication
• Resource principal token, which is a credential that enables the application to authenticate itself to other OCI services
• Using an IAM user name and IAM database password (can only be requested by database client)

When the IAM users logs into the client with a slash / login and the OCI_IAM parameter is configured (sqlnet.ora, tnsnames.ora, or as part of a connect string), then the database client retrieves the database token from a file. If the IAM user submits a user name and password, the connection will use the IAM database verifier access described for client connections that use IAM database password verifiers. If the parameter PASSWORD_AUTH=OCI_TOKEN, then the database driver will instead use the username and password to connect directly to IAM and request a database token. The instructions in this guide show how to use the OCI CLI as a helper for the database token. If the application or tool has been updated to work with IAM, then follow the instructions for the application or tool. Some common use cases include the following: SQL*Plus on-premises, SQLcl on-premises, SQL*Plus in Cloud Shell, or applications that use SEP wallets.

If a user enters a username/password to log in, then the database driver uses the password verifier method to access the database. If the parameter PASSWORD_AUTH=OCI_TOKEN, then the database driver will instead user the username and password to connect directly to IAM and request a database token.

Before using IAM authentication on databases in the Exadata Cloud Infrastructure, you must use the Networking service to add a service gateway, a route rule, and an egress security rule to the Virtual Cloud Network (VCN) and subnets where your database resources reside.

1. Create a service gateway in the VCN where your database resources reside by following the instructions in Task 1: Create the service gateway in OCI documentation.
2. After creating the service gateway, add a route rule and an egress security rule to each subnet (in the VCN) where the database resources reside so that these resources can use the gateway to use IAM authentication:
   1. Go to the Subnet Details page for the subnet.
   2. In the Subnet Information tab, click the name of the subnet's Route Table to display its Route Table Details page.
   3. In the table of existing Route Rules, check whether there is already a rule with the following characteristics:
      • Destination: All IAD Services In Oracle Services Network
      • Target Type: Service Gateway
      • Target: The name of the service gateway you just created in the VCN

      If such a rule does not exist, click Add Route Rules and add a route rule with these characteristics.

   4. Return to the Subnet Details page for the subnet.
   5. In the subnet's Security Lists table, click the name of the subnet's security list to display its Security List Details page.
   6. In the side menu, under Resources, click Egress Rules.
   7. In the table of existing Egress Rules, check whether there is already a rule with the following characteristics:
      • Stateless: No
      • Destination: All IAD Services In Oracle Services Network
      • IP Protocol: TCP
      • Source Port Range: All
      • Destination Port Range: 443
   8. If such a rule does not exist, click Add Egress Rules and add an egress rule with these characteristics.

Review the prerequisites for enabling IAM user access to Oracle Database.

If the database is enabled for another external authentication scheme, verify that you want to use IAM on the Oracle Database instance. There can only be one external authentication scheme enabled at any given time.

If you want to use IAM and another external authentication scheme is enabled, you must first disable the other external authentication scheme.

When sending IAM tokens from the database client to the database server, a TLS connection must be established. The TLS wallet with the database certificate for the ExaDB-D service instance must be stored under the WALLET_ROOT location. Create a tls directory so it looks like: WALLET_ROOT/<PDB GUID>/tls.

When configuring TLS between the database client and server there are several options to consider.

• Using a self-signed database server certificate vs a database server certificate signed by a commonly known certificate authority
• One-way TLS (TLS) vs Mutual or two-way TLS (mTLS)
• Client with or without a wallet

Self-Signed Certificate

Using a self-signed certificate is a common practice for internally facing IT resources since you can create these yourself and it's free. The resource (in our case, the database server) will have a self-signed certificate to authenticate itself to the database client. The self-signed certificate and root certificate will be stored in the database server wallet. For the database client to be able to recognize the database server certificate, a copy of the root certificate will also be needed on the client. This self-created root certificate can be stored in a client-side wallet or installed in the client system default certificate store (Windows and Linux only). When the session is established, the database client will check to see that the certificate sent over by the database server has been signed by the same root certificate.

A Well-Known Certificate Authority

Using a commonly known root certificate authority has some advantages in that the root certificate is most likely already stored in the client system default certificate store. There is no extra step for the client to store the root certificate if it is a common root certificate. The disadvantage is that this normally has a cost associated with it.

One-Way TLS

In the standard TLS session, only the server provides a certificate to the client to authenticate itself. The client doesn't need to have a separate client certificate to authenticate itself to the server (similar to how HTTPS sessions are established). While the database requires a wallet to store the server certificate, the only thing the client needs to have is the root certificate used to sign the server certificate.

Two-Way TLS (also called Mutual TLS, mTLS)

In mTLS, both the client and server have identity certificates that are presented to each other. In most cases, the same root certificate will have signed both of these certificates so the same root certificate can be used with the database server and client to authenticate the other certificate. mTLS is sometimes used to authenticate the user since the user identity is authenticated by the database server through the certificate. This is not necessary for passing IAM tokens but can be used when passing IAM tokens.

Client with a Wallet

A client wallet is mandatory when using mTLS to store the client certificate. However, the root certificate can be stored either in the same wallet or in the system default certificate store.

A Client without a Wallet

Clients can be configured without a wallet when using TLS under these conditions: 1) One-way TLS is being configured where the client does not have its own certificate and 2) the root certificate that signed the database server certificate is stored in the system default certificate store. The root certificate would most likely already be there if the server certificate is signed by a common certificate authority. If it's a self-signed certificate, then the root certificate would need to be installed in the system default certificate store to avoid using a client wallet.

For details on how to configure TLS between the database client and database server including the options described above, see Configuring Transport Layer Security Authentication in the Oracle Database Security Guide.

If you choose to use self-signed certificates and for additional wallet related tasks, see Managing Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Elements in the Oracle Database Security Guide.

Review the steps to enable or re-enable IAM user access to Oracle Database.

1. Perform the prerequisites for IAM authorization and authentication on Oracle Database.See Prerequisites for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Identity and Access Management (IAM) Authentication on Oracle Database for more information.
2. Enable Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (IAM) Authentication and Authorization using the ALTER SYSTEM command.

   ALTER SYSTEM SET IDENTITY_PROVIDER_TYPE=OCI_IAM SCOPE=BOTH;

3. Verify the value of IDENTITY_PROVIDER_TYPE system parameter.

   SELECT NAME, VALUE FROM V$PARAMETER WHERE NAME='identity_provider_type';

   
   NAME                     VALUE
   ----------------------   -------
   identity_provider_type   OCI_IAM

Describes the steps to disable IAM external authentication user access for Oracle Database.

To disable IAM user access on your Oracle Database instance:

1. Disable IAM integration using the ALTER SYSTEM command.

   ALTER SYSTEM RESET IDENTITY_PROVIDER_TYPE SCOPE=BOTH;

2. If you also want to remove the IAM policy to allow database access, you may need to review and either modify or remove the IAM groups and the policies you set up to allow access to the database by IAM users.

Review the notes for using Oracle Database tools with IAM authentication enabled.

• Oracle APEX is not supported for IAM users with Oracle Database.
• Database Actions is not supported for IAM users with Oracle Database. See Provide Database Actions Access to Database Users for information on using regular database users with Oracle Database.
• Oracle Machine Learning Notebooks and other components are not supported for IAM Authorized users with Oracle Database. See Add Existing Database User Account to Oracle Machine Learning Components for information on using regular database users with Oracle Database.

Review the steps to write policy statements for an IAM group to enable IAM user access to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure resources, specifically Oracle Database instances using IAM database tokens.

A policy is a group of statements that specifies who can access particular resources, and how. Access can be granted for the entire tenancy, databases in a compartment, or individual databases. This means you write a policy statement that gives a specific group a specific type of access to a specific type of resource within a specific compartment.

Note: Defining a policy is required to use IAM tokens to access Oracle Database. A policy is not required when using IAM database password verifiers to access Oracle Database.

1. Create an IAM group for IAM users that will access the database. Review OCI IAM documentation for creating groups and adding IAM users to a group.

   For example, create the group DBUsers. For more information, see Managing Groups.

2. Write policy statements to enable access to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure resources.
   1. In the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure console, click Identity and Security, and then click Policies.
   2. To write a policy, click Create Policy, and then enter a Name and a Description.
   3. Use the Policy Builder to create a policy. For example, to create a policy to allow users in IAM group DBUsers to access any Oracle Database in their tenancy:

      Allow group DBUsers to use database-connections in tenancy

      Where, database-connections is the OCI resource name to connect to the database. Use is the minimum verb to allow access to the database. Both use and manage can be used.

      For example to create a policy that limits members of DBUsers group to access Oracle Databases in the compartment testing_compartment only:

      allow group DBUsers to use database-connections in compartment testing_compartment

      For example, to create a policy that limits group access to a single database in a compartment:

      allow group DBUsers to use database-connections in compartment testing_compartment where target.database.id = 'ocid1.database.oc1.iad.aaaabbbbcccc'

   4. Click Create.

      For more information about policies, see Managing Policies.

Review the steps to authorize IAM users on an Oracle Database instance.

To authorize IAM users to allow access to Oracle Database, map database global users to IAM groups or directly to IAM users with CREATE USER or ALTER USER statements with IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS clause.

The authorization of IAM users to an Oracle Database instance works by mapping IAM global users (schemas) to IAM users (exclusive mapping) or IAM groups (shared schema mapping).

To authorize IAM users on a database instance:

1. Log in as a user with DBA privileges to the database that is enabled to use IAM. A user with the DBA role will need the required CREATE USER and ALTER USER system privileges for these steps.
2. Create a mapping between the Oracle Database user (schema) with CREATE USER or ALTER USER statements and include the IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS clause, specifying the IAM group name. Use the following syntax to map a global user to an IAM group:

   CREATE USER global_user IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS 'IAM_GROUP_NAME=IAM_GROUP_NAME';

   For example, to map an IAM group named db_sales_group to a shared database global user named sales_group:

   CREATE USER sales_group IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS 'IAM_GROUP_NAME=db_sales_group';

   This creates a shared global user mapping. The mapping, with the global user sales_group is effective for all users in the IAM group. Thus, anyone in the db_sales_group can log in to the database using their IAM credentials through the shared mapping of the sales_group global user.

   If you want to create additional global user mappings for other IAM groups or users, follow these steps for each IAM group or user.

   Note
   
   Database users that are not IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY can continue to login as before, even when the Oracle Database is enabled for IAM authentication.

You can map a local IAM user exclusively to an Oracle Database global user.

1. Log in as an user with DBA privileges to the database that is enabled to use IAM. A user with the DBA role has will need the required CREATE USER and ALTER USER system privileges that you need for these steps.
2. Create a mapping between the Oracle Database user (schema) with CREATE USER or ALTER USER statements and include the IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS clause, specifying the IAM local IAM user name. For example, to create a new database global user named peter_fitch and map this user to an existing local IAM user named peterfitch:

   CREATE USER peter_fitch IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS 'IAM_PRINCIPAL_NAME=peterfitch'

You can use either instance principal or resource principal to retrieve database tokens to establish a connection from your application to an Oracle Database instance.

If you are using an instance principal or resource principal, you must map a dynamic group. Thus, you cannot exclusively map instance and resource principals. You only can map them through a shared mapping and putting the instance or resource instance in an IAM dynamic group

Optionally, create global roles to provide additional database roles and privileges to IAM users when multiple IAM users are mapped to the same shared global user.

Creating global roles is optional, but useful when assigning users to a shared schema.

Use a global role to optionally differentiate users who use the same shared schema. For example, a set of users can all have the same shared schema and the shared schema could have the CREATE SESSION privilege. Then global roles can be used to provide differentiated privileges and roles assigned to different groups of users who all use the same shared schema.

Granting additional roles to IAM users in Oracle Database works by mapping Oracle Database global roles to IAM groups.

1. Log in as a user with DBA privileges to the database that is enabled to use IAM. A user with the DBA privileges CREATE ROLE and ALTER ROLE system privileges is needed for these steps.
2. Set database authorization for Oracle Database roles with CREATE ROLE or ALTER ROLE statements and include the IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS clause, specifying the IAM group name. Use the following syntax to map a global role to an IAM group:

   CREATE ROLE global_role IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS 'IAM_GROUP_NAME=IAM_GROUP_of_WHICH_the_IAM_USER_IS_a_MEMBER';

   For example, to map an IAM group named ExporterGroup to a shared database global role named export_role:

   CREATE ROLE export_role IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS 'IAM_GROUP_NAME=ExporterGroup';

3. Use the GRANT statements to grant the required privileges or other roles to the global role.

   GRANT CREATE SESSION TO export_role;
   GRANT DWROLE TO export_role;

4. If you want an existing database role to be associated with an IAM group, then use the ALTER ROLE statement to alter the existing database role to map the role to an IAM group. Use the following syntax to alter an existing database role to map it to an IAM group:

   ALTER ROLE existing_database_role IDENTIFIED GLOBALLY AS 'IAM_GROUP_NAME=IAM_Group_Name';

Follow these steps for each IAM group to add additional global role mappings for other IAM groups.

To add an IAM user and allow the IAM user to login to Oracle Database by supplying a username and password, you must create an IAM database password.

For more information, see Working with IAM Database Passwords.

Related Topics

• Working with IAM Database Passwords

You can configure SQL*Plus to use an IAM database password verifier.

CONNECT user_name@db_connect_string
Enter password: password

In this specification, user_name is the IAM user name. There is a limit of 128 bytes for the combined domain_name/user_name.

sqlplus /nolog
connect peter_fitch@db_connect_string
Enter password: password

"peter_fitch@example.com"@db_connect_string

"IAM database password"

You can configure a client connection for SQL*Plus that uses an IAM token.

1. Ensure you have an IAM user account.
2. Check with an IAM administrator and the database administrator to ensure you have a policy allowing you to access the database in the compartment or your tenancy and that you are mapped to a global schema in the database.
3. If your application or tool does not support direct IAM integration, then download, install, and configure the OCI CLI. (See OCI Command Line Interface Quickstart.) Set up an API key as part of the OCI CLI configuration and select default values.
   1. Set up the API key access for the IAM user.
   2. Retrieve the db-token. For example:
      • Retrieve a db-token with an API-key using the OCI CLI:

        oci iam db-token get

      • Retrieve db-token with a security (or session) token:

        oci iam db-token get --auth security_token

      • Retrieve db-token with a delegation token: When you log in to the cloud shell, the delegation token is automatically generated and placed in the /etc directory. To get this token, execute the following command in the OCI CLI:

        oci iam db-token get

      • Using an instance principal to retrieve a db-token using OCI CLI:

        oci iam db-token get --auth instance_principal

      If the security token has expired, a window will appear so the user can log in to OCI again. This generates the security token for the user. OCI CLI will use this refreshed token to get the db-token.

      See Required Keys and OCIDs for more information.

4. Ensure that you are using the latest release updates for the Oracle Database client releases 19c.

   This configuration only works with the Oracle Database client release 19c.

5. Follow the existing process to download the wallet from the database and then follow the directions for configuring it for use with SQL*Plus.
   1. Confirm that DN matching is enabled by looking for SSL_SERVER_DN_MATCH=ON in sqlnet.ora.
   2. Configure the database client to use the IAM token by adding TOKEN_AUTH=OCI_TOKEN to the sqlnet.ora file. Because you will be using the default locations for the database token file, you do not need to include the token location.
   The TOKEN_AUTH and TOKEN_LOCATION values in the tnsnames.ora connect strings take precedence over the sqlnet.ora settings for that connection. For example, for the connect string, assuming that the token is in the default location ( ~/.oci/db-token for Linux):

   (description= 
     (retry_count=20)(retry_delay=3)
     (address=(protocol=tcps)(port=1522)
     (host=example.us-phoenix-1.oraclecloud.com))
     (connect_data=(service_name=aaabbbccc_exampledb_high.example.oraclecloud.com))
     (security=(ssl_server_cert_dn="CN=example.uscom-east-1.oraclecloud.com, 
        OU=Oracle BMCS US, O=Example Corporation, 
        L=Redwood City, ST=California, C=US")
     (TOKEN_AUTH=OCI_TOKEN)))

connect /@exampledb_high

connect /@(description= 
  (retry_count=20)(retry_delay=3)
  (address=(protocol=tcps)(port=1522)
  (host=example.us-phoenix-1.oraclecloud.com))
  (connect_data=(service_name=aaabbbccc_exampledb_high.example.oraclecloud.com))
  (security=(ssl_server_cert_dn="CN=example.uscom-east-1.oraclecloud.com, 
     OU=Oracle BMCS US, O=Example Corporation, 
     L=Redwood City, ST=California, C=US")
  (TOKEN_AUTH=OCI_TOKEN)))

The database client is already configured to get a db-token because TOKEN_AUTH has already been set, either through the sqlnet.ora file or in a connect string. The database client gets the db-token and signs it using the private key and then sends the token to the database. If an IAM user name and IAM database password are specified instead of slash /, then the database client will connect using the password instead of using the db-token.

You can create a client connection that uses a token requested by an IAM user name and database password.

• IAM users can connect to the Oracle DBaaS instance by using an IAM token that was retrieved using an IAM user name and IAM database password.

  For more information, see About Client Connections That Use a Token Requested by an IAM User Name and Database Password

• To set these parameters, you modify either the sqlnet.ora file or the tnsnames.ora file.

  For more information, see Parameters to Set for Client Connections That Use a Token Requested by an IAM User Name and Database Password

• You can configure the database client to retrieve the IAM database token using the provided IAM user name and IAM database password.

  For more information, see Configuring the Database Client to Retrieve a Token Using an IAM User Name and Database Password

• You can enable an IAM user name and a secure external password store (SEPS) to request the IAM database token.

  For more information, see Configuring a Secure External Password Store Wallet to Retrieve an IAM Token

After the ADMIN user enables OCI IAM on the database, an application can access the database through an OCI IAM database token using an instance principal.

For more information, see Accessing the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure API Using Instance Principals.

For more Information, see Accessing the Database Using an Instance Principal or a Resource Principal.

Proxy authentication allows an IAM user to proxy to a database schema for tasks such as application maintenance.

Proxy authentication is typically used to authenticate the real user and then authorize them to use a database schema with the schema privileges and roles in order to manage an application. Alternatives such as sharing the application schema password are considered insecure and unable to audit which actual user performed an action.

A use case can be in an environment in which a named IAM user who is an application database administrator can authenticate by using their credentials and then proxy to a database schema user (for example, hrapp). This authentication enables the IAM administrator to use the hrapp privileges and roles as user hrapp in order to perform application maintenance, yet still use their IAM credentials for authentication. An application database administrator can sign in to the database and then proxy to an application schema to manage this schema.

You can configure proxy authentication for both the password authentication and token authentication methods.

Configuring Proxy Authentication for the IAM User

To configure proxy authentication for an IAM user, the IAM user must already have a mapping to a global schema (exclusive or shared mapping). A separate database schema for the IAM user to proxy to must also be available.

After you ensure that you have this type of user, alter the database user to allow the IAM user to proxy to it.

1. Log in to the database instance as a user who has the ALTER USER system privileges.
2. Grant permission for the IAM user to proxy to the local database user account. An IAM user cannot be referenced in the command so the proxy must be created between the database global user (mapped to the IAM user) and the target database user.In the following example, hrapp is the database schema to proxy to, and peterfitch_schema is the database global user exclusively mapped to user peterfitch.

   ALTER USER hrapp GRANT CONNECT THROUGH peterfitch_schema;

Validating the IAM User Proxy Authentication

You can validate the IAM user proxy configuration for both password and token authentication methods.

1. Connect as the IAM user and proxied to the database user. Run the SHOW USER and SELECT SYS_CONTEXT commands.

   For example, suppose you want to check the proxy authentication of the IAM user peterfitch when they proxy to database user hrapp. You will need to connect to the database using the different types of authentication methods shown here, but the output of the commands that you execute will be the same for all types.

   • For password authentication:

     CONNECT peterfitch[hrapp]/password\!@connect_string SHOW USER;

     --The output should be USER is "HRAPP" 
     SELECT SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV','AUTHENTICATION_METHOD') FROM DUAL;
     --The output should be "PASSWORD_GLOBAL" 
     SELECT SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV','PROXY_USER') FROM DUAL; 
     --The output should be "PETERFITCH_SCHEMA" 
     SELECT SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV','CURRENT_USER') FROM DUAL;
     --The output should be "HRAPP"

   • For token authentication:

     CONNECT [hrapp]/@connect_string
     SHOW USER;
     

     --The output should be USER is "HRAPP "
     SELECT SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV','AUTHENTICATION_METHOD') FROM DUAL;
     --The output should be "TOKEN_GLOBAL"
     SELECT SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV','PROXY_USER') FROM DUAL;
     --The output should be "PETERFITCH_SCHEMA"
     SELECT SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV','CURRENT_USER') FROM DUAL;
     --The output should be "HRAPP"

You can use a database link to connect from one database instance to another as an OCI IAM user.

You can use either connected user or fixed user database link to connect to a database as an OCI IAM user.

• Connected User Database Link: For a connected user database link, an IAM user must be mapped to a schema in both the source and target databases connected by a database link. You can use a database password verifier or an IAM database token to use a connected user database link.

• Fixed User Database Link: A fixed user database link can be created using a database user or an IAM user. When using an IAM user as a fixed user database link, the IAM user must have a schema mapping in the target database. The IAM user for a database link can be configured with a password verifier only.