passwords

If you cannot wait for a fully autonomous offering, and you’ve jumped into the 20c preview release on Oracle Cloud, obviously the first thing you will probably be installing is Oracle Application Express.

Unlike autonomous, you’ll be installing it manually, which is a quick and easy process, and either in that installation or when adding ORDS later, you’ll be wanting to set the passwords for the public access accounts (typically APEX_PUBLIC_USER and APEX_REST_PUBLIC_USER).

Here’s what that looks like in Oracle Database 19c

That’s a very light bug with a very simple workaround, but it may require a little change in scripts. If you use passwordless authentication (external password file or OS authentication) with Data Pump in 19c it will ask for the password. The solution is just to answer whatever you want because the external authentication will be used anyway.

Example

I create the wallet

mkstore -wrl $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin -create <w4ll3t-P455w0rd
w4ll3t-P455w0rd
CREATE

I create a tnsnames.ora entry that I’ll use to connect:

cat >> $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/tnsnames.ora  <CDB1A_SYSTEM=(DESCRIPTION=(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=CDB1A))(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=127.0.0.1)(PORT=1521)))
CAT

I add a credential for this entry — here SYSTEM user and its password:

Wow…it is nearly 4 years ago now that I wrote an article on connecting to the database via a wallet to avoid having to hard code passwords into script. That article is here:

https://connor-mcdonald.com/2015/09/21/connection-shortcuts-with-a-wallet/

So I went to do a similar exercise on my new 18c Windows database today, and to my surprise things went pear shaped at the very first step

I got a nasty shock this morning when I fired up my local Application Expression installation.

It had been working fine and all of a sudden…just dead. I sounded like all of those family members that as I.T practitioners we have to deal with (and that we’re so sceptical of) when they say: “I didn’t change anything…it just stopped!”

In keeping with the treatment of family members, I then adopted the advice that I normally give them first.

If you are relying on database links in your application, think carefully about how you want to manage the accounts that you connect with, in particular, when it comes to password expiry.

With a standard connect request to the database, if your password is going to expire soon, you will get some feedback on this:

SQL> conn demo/demo@np12
ERROR:
ORA-28002: the password will expire within 6 days


Connected.

But when using those same credentials via a database link, you will not get any warning, so when that password expires…you might be dead in the water.