Oracle Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) On Exadata

Oracle Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) enables the organizations to encrypt sensitive application data on storage media completely transparent to the application. TDE protects the data at rest. TDE encrypts the data in the datafiles so that in case they are obtained by hacker or theft it will not be possible to access the clear text data. In the databases where TDE is configured any user who has access on an encrypted table will be able to see the data in clear text because Oracle will transparently decrypt the data for any user having the necessary privileges. Oracle TDE is available by default in Oracle RDBMS Enteprise Edition. To be able to use this it is necessary to purchase an Oracle Advanced Security license.


In this article we will demonstrate how to implement TDE on Exadata Database Machine to protect sensitive data. Here we are setting up TDE for multiple database running on the same cluster. However same steps are valid for one single database as well.


Steps to configure or implement TDE


Step 1: Create Directories and Grant File Permissions

# dcli -g ~/dbs_group -l root mkdir -p /etc/oracle/wallets/

#dcli -g ~/dbs_group -l root -s "-q" 'ls -l /etc/oracle/wallets'

#dcli -g ~/dbs_group -l root 'cd /etc/oracle/wallets;ls -l'

#dcli -g ~/dbs_group -l root 'cd /etc;chown -R oracle:oinstall oracle'

#dcli -g ~/dbs_group -l root 'cd /etc;chmod -R 700 oracle'

#dcli -g ~/dbs_group -l oracle 'cd /etc/oracle/wallets;mkdir orcldb'

#dcli -g ~/dbs_group -l oracle 'cd /etc/oracle/wallets;mkdir nsmdb'


Step 2: Set the ENCRYPTION_WALLET_LOCATION parameter in sqlnet.ora to the newly created directory.

- backup the sqlnet.ora file on all the nodes

$ dcli -g ~/dbs_group -l oracle 'cd /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0.4/dbhome_1/network/admin;cp sqlnet.ora sqlnet.ora_bkp'

$ dcli -g ~/dbs_group -l oracle 'cd /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0.4/dbhome_1/network/admin;ls -l sqlnet.ora*'

- Update the sqlnet.ora on node 1 add the below line to the sqlnet.ora file

$ cd /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0.4/dbhome_1/network/admin
$ vi sqlnet.ora

ENCRYPTION_WALLET_LOCATION = (SOURCE = (METHOD = FILE) (METHOD_DATA = (DIRECTORY = /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/)))


Step 3: Copy sqlnet.ora to all the nodes from node 1

dm01db01-nsmdb1 {/home/oracle}:scp sqlnet.ora oracle@dm01db02:/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0.4/dbhome_1/network/admin/

dm01db01-nsmdb1 {/home/oracle}:dcli -g ~/dbs_group -l oracle 'cd /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0.4/dbhome_1/network/admin;ls -l sqlnet.ora'

- Verify the contents of sqlnet.ora on all the nodes:

dm01db01-nsmdb1 {/home/oracle}:dcli -g ~/dbs_group -l oracle 'cd /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0.4/dbhome_1/network/admin;cat sqlnet.ora'


Step 4: Initialize the wallet and add the master encryption key using the SQL*Plus command line interface:

 **************************VERY VERY IMPORTANT **************************

AT THE OS PROMPT SET THE ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE export ORACLE_UNQNAME=orcldb

dm01db01-nsmdb1 {/home/oracle}:export ORACLE_UNQNAME=orcldb

dm01db01-nsmdb1 {/home/oracle}: sqlplus / as sysdba

SQL> col WRL_PARAMETER for a60
SQL> set lines 200
SQL> select * from gv$encryption_wallet order by 1;

   INST_ID WRL_TYPE             WRL_PARAMETER                                                STATUS
---------- -------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------
         1 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         CLOSED
         2 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         CLOSED
         3 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         CLOSED
         4 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         CLOSED
         5 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         CLOSED
         6 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         CLOSED
         7 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         CLOSED
         8 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         CLOSED

8 rows selected.

SQL> alter system set encryption key identified by "welcom1";

System altered.

SQL> select * from gv$encryption_wallet order by 1;

   INST_ID WRL_TYPE             WRL_PARAMETER                                                STATUS
---------- -------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------
         1 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN
         2 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         CLOSED
         3 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         CLOSED
         4 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         CLOSED
         5 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         CLOSED
         6 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         CLOSED
         7 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         CLOSED
         8 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         CLOSED


Step 5: Copy the wallet file ewallet.p12 to all the nodes:

dm01db01-orcldb1 {/home/oracle}:cd /etc/oracle/wallets/orcldb/

dm01db01-orcldb1 {/etc/oracle/wallets/orcldb}:ls -ltr
total 8
-rw------- 1 oracle oinstall 1837 Feb 22 08:28 ewallet.p12_20130226
-rw-r--r-- 1 oracle oinstall 1309 Feb 26 05:14 ewallet.p12

dm01db01-orcldb1 {/etc/oracle/wallets/orcldb}:scp ewallet.p12 oracle@dm01db02:/etc/oracle/wallets/orcldb/
ewallet.p12                                                 100% 1309     1.3KB/s   00:00


Step 6: verify at the wallet is opened on all the nodes. This is the default behavior after you copy the wallet file to all the nodes

dm01db01-nsmdb1 {/home/oracle}: sqlplus / as sysdba

SQL> col WRL_PARAMETER for a60
SQL> set lines 200
SQL> select * from gv$encryption_wallet order by 1;

   INST_ID WRL_TYPE             WRL_PARAMETER                                                STATUS
---------- -------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------
         1 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN
         2 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN
         3 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN
         4 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN
         5 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN
         6 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN
         7 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN
         8 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN

8 rows selected.


- IF FOR SOME REASON IF THE WALLET IS NOT OPENED, FOLLOW THE BELOW STEPS

A) set the variable
export ORACLE_UNQNAME=orcldb

B) login to the database
sqlplus / as sysdba

c) open the wallet
ALTER SYSTEM SET WALLET OPEN IDENTIFIED BY "welcome1";

D) Repeat the A,B and C for all the instances in the cluster.


Step 7: Whenever you bounce the database you must open the wallet manually as follows:

dm01db02-orcldb2 {/home/oracle}:srvctl stop database -d orcldb
dm01db01-orcldb1 {/home/oracle}:srvctl start database -d orcldb

dm01db01-orcldb1 {/home/oracle}:export ORACLE_UNQNAME=orcldb
dm01db01-orcldb1 {/home/oracle}:sqlplus / as sysdba

SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.4.0 Production on Tue Feb 26 05:23:02 2013

Copyright (c) 1982, 2011, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Connected to:
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.4.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, Real Application Clusters, Automatic Storage Management, OLAP,
Data Mining and Real Application Testing options

SQL> select name,open_mode,database_role from gv$database;

NAME      OPEN_MODE            DATABASE_ROLE
--------- -------------------- ----------------
orcldb   READ WRITE           PRIMARY
orcldb   READ WRITE           PRIMARY
orcldb   READ WRITE           PRIMARY
orcldb   READ WRITE           PRIMARY
orcldb   READ WRITE           PRIMARY
orcldb   READ WRITE           PRIMARY
orcldb   READ WRITE           PRIMARY
orcldb   READ WRITE           PRIMARY

8 rows selected.

SQL> col WRL_PARAMETER for a60
SQL> set lines 200
SQL> select * from gv$encryption_wallet order by 1;

   INST_ID WRL_TYPE             WRL_PARAMETER                                                STATUS
---------- -------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------
         1 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         CLOSED
         2 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         CLOSED
         3 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         CLOSED
         4 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         CLOSED
         5 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         CLOSED
         6 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         CLOSED
         7 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         CLOSED
         8 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         CLOSED

8 rows selected.


SQL> ALTER SYSTEM SET WALLET OPEN IDENTIFIED BY "welcome1";

System altered.

SQL> select * from gv$encryption_wallet order by 1;

   INST_ID WRL_TYPE             WRL_PARAMETER                                                STATUS
---------- -------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------
         1 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN
         2 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN
         3 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN
         4 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN
         5 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN
         6 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN
         7 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN
         8 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN

8 rows selected.


Step 8:  Making the wallet Auto-Login. If you have a auto-login wallet you don't need to open the wallet after a database bounce. This is done automatic for you.

dm01db01-orcldb1 {/home/oracle} export ORACLE_UNQNAME=orcldb
   
dm01db01-orcldb1 {/home/oracle}:ls -l /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME
total 8
-rw-r--r-- 1 oracle oinstall 1309 Feb 26 05:14 ewallet.p12

dm01db01-orcldb1 {/home/oracle}:orapki wallet create -wallet /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME -auto_login
Oracle PKI Tool : Version 11.2.0.4.0 - Production
Copyright (c) 2004, 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Enter wallet password:

dm01db01-orcldb1 {/home/oracle}:ls -l /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME
total 12
-rw------- 1 oracle oinstall 1387 Feb 26 05:26 cwallet.sso
-rw-r--r-- 1 oracle oinstall 1309 Feb 26 05:14 ewallet.p12

dm01db01-orcldb1 {/home/oracle}:cd /etc/oracle/wallets/orcldb/
dm01db01-orcldb1 {/etc/oracle/wallets/orcldb}:ls -ltr
total 12
-rw-r--r-- 1 oracle oinstall 1309 Feb 26 05:14 ewallet.p12
-rw------- 1 oracle oinstall 1387 Feb 26 05:26 cwallet.sso

- Copy the cwallet.sso to all the nodes:

dm01db01-orcldb1 {/etc/oracle/wallets/orcldb}:scp cwallet.sso oracle@dm01db02:/etc/oracle/wallets/orcldb/

cwallet.sso                                  100% 1387     1.4KB/s   00:00

dm01db01-orcldb1 {/etc/oracle/wallets/orcldb}:sqlplus / as sysdba

SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.4.0 Production on Tue Feb 26 05:28:26 2013

Copyright (c) 1982, 2011, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Connected to:
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.4.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, Real Application Clusters, Automatic Storage Management, OLAP,
Data Mining and Real Application Testing options

SQL> col WRL_PARAMETER for a60
SQL> set lines 200
SQL> select * from gv$encryption_wallet order by 1;

   INST_ID WRL_TYPE             WRL_PARAMETER                                                STATUS
---------- -------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------
         1 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN
         2 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN
         3 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN
         4 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN
         5 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN
         6 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN
         7 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN
         8 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN

8 rows selected.

SQL> exit
Disconnected from Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.4.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, Real Application Clusters, Automatic Storage Management, OLAP,
Data Mining and Real Application Testing options

- Verify that the wallet is opened following a database bounce:

dm01db01-orcldb1 {/etc/oracle/wallets/orcldb}:srvctl stop database -d orcldb

dm01db01-orcldb1 {/etc/oracle/wallets/orcldb}:srvctl start database -d orcldb

dm01db01-orcldb1 {/etc/oracle/wallets/orcldb}:srvctl status database -d orcldb
Instance orcldb1 is running on node dm01db01
Instance orcldb2 is running on node dm01db02
Instance orcldb3 is running on node dm01db03
Instance orcldb4 is running on node dm01db04
Instance orcldb5 is running on node dm01db05
Instance orcldb6 is running on node dm01db06
Instance orcldb7 is running on node dm01db07
Instance orcldb8 is running on node dm01db08

dm01db01-orcldb1 {/etc/oracle/wallets/orcldb}:sqlplus / as sysdba

SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.4.0 Production on Tue Feb 26 05:32:19 2013

Copyright (c) 1982, 2011, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Connected to:
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.4.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, Real Application Clusters, Automatic Storage Management, OLAP,
Data Mining and Real Application Testing options

SQL> col WRL_PARAMETER for a60
SQL> set lines 200
SQL> select * from gv$encryption_wallet order by 1;

   INST_ID WRL_TYPE             WRL_PARAMETER                                                STATUS
---------- -------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------
         1 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN
         2 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN
         3 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN
         4 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN
         5 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN
         6 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN
         7 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN
         8 file                 /etc/oracle/wallets/$ORACLE_UNQNAME/                         OPEN

8 rows selected.


############ REAPEAT THE SAME STEPS FOR ALL THE DATABASES #############

Testing Tablespace Encryption (TSE)

Step 1: Create an Encrypted tablespace and grant the users permissions on the tablespace

SQL> CREATE TABLESPACE enc_tbs DATAFILE '+DATA' SIZE 1000M ENCRYPTION USING 'AES256' DEFAULT STORAGE(ENCRYPT);

Tablespace created.

SQL> select TABLESPACE_NAME, ENCRYPTED from dba_tablespaces where tablespace_name in ('USERS','ENC_TBS') order by 1;

TABLESPACE_NAME                ENC
------------------------------ ---
ENC_TBS                        YES
USERS                          NO


SQL> select TABLESPACE_NAME, FILE_NAME from dba_data_files where TABLESPACE_NAME in ('USERS','ENC_TBS');

TABLESPACE_NAME FILE_NAME
------------------------------ ------------------------------
USERS +DATA/nsmdb/datafile/users.529.762113429
ENC_TBS +DATA/nsmdb/datafile/enc_tbs.540.804301513


SQL> alter user test quota unlimited on  ENC_TBS;

User altered.

SQL> alter user test quota unlimited on  USERS;

User altered.


Step 2: Create tables in encypted and non-encrypted tablespaces

SQL> create table test.nonenc(data varchar2(100)) tablespace users;

Table created.

SQL> insert into test.nonenc values ('ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWZYZ');

1 row created.

SQL> commit;

Commit complete.


SQL> create table test.encrypted(data varchar2(100)) tablespace enc_tbs;

Table created.

SQL> insert into test.encrypted values ('ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWZYZ');

1 row created.

SQL> commit;

Commit complete.

SQL> alter system checkpoint;

System altered.


Step 3: Verify that the data is encrypted

dm01db01-nsmdb1 {/u01/dba}:asm

dm01db01-+ASM1 {/u01/dba}:asmcmd -p
ASMCMD [+] > cd +DATA/NSMDB/DATA*
ASMCMD [+DATA/NSMDB/DATAFILE] > ls -l

ASMCMD [+DATA/NSMDB/DATAFILE] > cp USERS.529.762113429 /u01/dba/
copying +DATA/NSMDB/DATAFILE/USERS.529.762113429 -> /u01/dba//USERS.529.762113429

ASMCMD [+DATA/NSMDB/DATAFILE] > cp ENC_TBS.540.804301513 /u01/dba/
copying +DATA/NSMDB/DATAFILE/ENC_TBS.540.804301513 -> /u01/dba//ENC_TBS.540.804301513

dm01db01-+ASM1 {/u01/dba}:ls -ltr
-rw-r----- 1 oracle oinstall  703602688 Jan 10 01:30 USERS.529.762113429
-rw-r----- 1 oracle oinstall 1048584192 Jan 10 01:31 ENC_TBS.540.804301513


dm01db01-nsmdb1 {/u01/dba}:strings /u01/dba/USERS.529.762113429 | grep ABCD
89:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQR|STUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWZYZ

dm01db01-nsmdb1 {/u01/dba}:strings /u01/dba/ENC_TBS.540.804301513 | grep ABCD

- From the above 2 string commands it is clear that the tablespace encryption is indeed working for us.


Conclusion

In this article we have learned how to encrypt sensitive data using Transparent Data Encryption (TDE). TDE protects the data at rest. In the databases where TDE is configured any user who has access on an encrypted table will be able to see the data in clear text because Oracle will transparently decrypt the data for any user having the necessary privileges.